The Never Setting Moon
by Kage Kitsune
Summary: Legned of Dragoon/Megami Kouhosei Candidate for the Goddess . The children of the original LoD heros are left to pick up the peaces now as the moon that never sets returns and their world is thrown into complete chaos. Warning, this is Yaoi! HZ GE EC RY
1. The Results of a Moon

Suna: The places that I weren't sure of, I bolded and put in this color to make an easy fix. Otherwise I just fixed the wording, etc, so that it made absolute sense. :)

Alright so...I'll just get straight to the point. I like the story, but I can't handle the direction it was going in the old one. I think it should be more detailed and have more story in it than just random altercations and such low character acknowledgment to some situations that it was just sad. So yes...I'm going to rewrite the entire story. It should still be the original story, but at the same time there will be more to it and well lots of different things too. Sorry if this brings about any confusion.

Warnings: The story is YAOI, Shonen ai, get over it.

Notes:

thoughts = ' '

mind speech = italics

(X) is pov change and or time jump.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

That should clear things up.

Chapter 1: The Results of a Moon

A battle was fought long ago between four races; a battle filled with nothing, but pain and bloodshed overflow the legends that surround all of Endines. This war ended with a single victor and the few survivors of the losing races were forced into hiding. Time went on; people turned the long ago battle into legend. Slowly all was forgotten and legend turned into nothing more than a bedtime story.

One thousand years later, a man named Dart was forced into the legend that was slowly regaining life. He brought justice to the old races as well as the victors with the help of seven other warriors. Together they set the Earth free of its bindings to a most gruesome fate. The world purified and peace was brought to all the lands; the eight warriors were able to move on with their lives, have families, return to their homes.

Yet as time flows, memories do fade. Only a handful of people really know the truth of what happened to those eight warriors during that long, long journey. A dark star has now risen. The fate that was destroyed was somehow reborn. Those who understand that meaning now have fear in their hearts. They can now only pray for their world to remain at peace or for heroes to rise again and save them from the horror that awaits. Someone far off laughs at the thought of these heroes, but one person has been heard. And thus, our story begins.

"Please, don't let the bad monsters come back and take my big brother and daddy away from me," a little girl with short pink hair and cat ears prayed. She was kneeling on the balcony, head bowed to the night sky trying her best not to burst into tears. She was the king's youngest, princess Kizuna, and with the news of what tomorrow would bring, all she could do was wish for a new ending. She knew the stories her father had told her too well, knew of the journey he and his friends had gone on. It was too much for the little girl.

The battles her father had been forced to endure, he had told them to her, and they had changed him. However she didn't want her father or brother to change. She loved them the way they were. Worse, her father was nearing his late forties; he couldn't fight anymore. He'd never have the energy to hold his own against some monsters, not anymore.

She'd begun praying every night and day with those thoughts in mind since the news had come to them two weeks before. She didn't want a war to start, didn't want to see her home destroyed or for any of the knights to die; they were her friends!

She finished her prayer and stood up. Glaring at the big blue orb in the sky that had long been known as "The Moon that Never Sets", she screamed at it.

"I HATE You! Stupid moon! Why did you have to come back!...why...?" She felt the warm tears stream down her face and she fell back to her knees on the balcony. "Why do you want to take my daddy and brother away from me?" She wiped a few of the tears away, but more continued to come. She'd already lost a brother, so why did she have to lose more of her relatives? She wondered if her family was maybe cursed and sniffled. It just wasn't fair.

She heard a small click letting her know that someone had entered her room. She wasn't supposed to be awake, as it was way past her bedtime, but she had to be able to pray in peace or they might not get answered. Wiping a few more tears away, she got back up just in time to see her older brother, Ernest, walk out onto the balcony. One look at him and the tears started again. She ran over to him and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. He just didn't look like a warrior to her. There was no way someone with such a small build could possibly fight and win.

It didn't make it any better that he was wearing white robes at the moment, and that his blonde hair was styled more like a girl's than a boy's. It was long and went down to his shoulders, longer in front and becoming about an inch shorter as it went back. His white robes also looked feminine. They were tight and left nothing for guess work, and while this proved he had muscles, she still couldn't see him fighting anyone. He was too nice, too gentle, even his skin was smoother than her own.

He picked her up then, his blue eyes full of concern as he watched her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his soft voice filled with worry. Kizuna nodded slowly and was glad when he hugged her. She didn't want him to be worried about her, everyone should be worrying about him. He was the one that was going to end up in the war if something wasn't done. Even so, she couldn't keep herself focused on those thoughts, as being in her brother's embrace always made her feel better and she let her worries melt away.

"Why is daddy making you do this?" She asked, sniffling again. Tomorrow, Ernest would be getting the moon sphere put into his body. She was scared that this too might change her brother, and the two of them would no longer be friends. If her brother stopped talking to her, she wouldn't know what she'd do, for she loved her brother. It just wasn't fair! Why did the moon that never sets suddenly have to return along with all its moon items? Hadn't her father destroyed all of them years ago? They had come back anyway though, and now her brother would have to get this moon item put into his body so he could keep it safe, just like all the other royal members before him.

"You know Kizuna, I'm scared too, but if you're there with me, I think I'll be okay," he said smiling at her. Kizuna's eyes lit up at that and she wiped the last of her tears away returning the smile. If her brother needed her, then she would be there. She'd be brave enough for both of them.

"Okay...I'll...I'll be brave. And you promise not to disappear like..." She couldn't get her other brother's name out without starting to cry again. Her brother seemed to know exactly what she was going to say and shook his head, kissing her on her forehead.

"Of course not. I'm not going to vanish without a word to you like Erts," he promised her. She nodded again and Ernest started back into her room. "Now let's get you into bed before dad finds out you're still awake." He shut the doors to the balcony and walked over to her bed, spinning her around once before he plopped her down onto it. She couldn't help, but laugh as they spun; she had always loved that. "Now, go to sleep and I'll see you in the morning." He kissed her on the forehead again and waved to her as he walked to the door. "Be good."

"Okay, good night big brother!" She called out to him as she pulled her blankets up to her chin. She liked to stay warm during the night. Hopefully she wouldn't have any nightmares now that she'd been able to talk to her brother and he'd promised to stay. Ernest never broke his promises to her.

(X)

Ernest closed the door to Kizuna's room quietly and closed his eyes as he leaned against the wall near said door. He was not ready for this in any way. He knew all too well the dangers the moon sphere could cause; everyone did. So why was his father forcing him to take on this responsibility?

'Because for every moon object, there must be a guardian. Kizuna will get the moon dagger when she's of age if your aunt does not produce an heir by that time.' The words repeated through Ernest's mind like acid. Not only was he going to be forced to endure the hell of keeping a moon item safe, but his little sister would too. Kizuna had been right to scream at that cursed moon. Why had that damnable thing come back in the first place? Hadn't his father and friends destroyed it? Had the deaths of all those people been really been in vain?

"My lord...? Are you alright?"

Ernest opened his eyes and spotted his personal guard standing in front of him, looking worried. It was hard to tell Yu's emotions at any given time when you were simply looking at him, as his black hair was cut short, but was often covering his dark gray eyes. However, his body language was readable enough if you knew him well. Ernest had known him for so long that it was easy for him to tell what his guard was thinking, and he wished he could explain everything to the teen he considered his best friend. Yu, however, had completely closed himself to their personal relationship once they'd both become of age, so why bother sharing his emotions now?

'You have no idea how much your teasing hurts me, Yu,' Ernest thought to himself, placing a mental mask over his features. There was no reason to make the knight worry; he no doubt had many other things to take care of, so why force him to put up with Ernest's emotions as well? He could handle this by himself, or at least he hoped he could.

"I'm fine," the prince lied, a relaxed smile on his face. If he said anything else it would no doubt just cause problems, something neither of them needed. "Kizuna was having some problems falling asleep, but I tucked her in." He didn't wait for Yu to give a reply. Instead, he headed to his room so he could be alone. If only Yu hadn't taken his training so seriously. Some of the other knights were able to speak with his father on even terms, why couldn't his best friend do the same? Why couldn't Erts be here so he could at least have someone to talk to that would see him as a person and not just a prince? "It's because Erts is gone," he reminded himself sadly.

It had happened such a long time ago, and yet the memories hadn't faded at all from his mind. Ernest had only been eleven, Erts eight, and Kizuna six at the time. They were returning to Bale from a summer vacation in Fletz where they'd been visiting their grandfather and aunts. On the way back, their carriage had been attacked near Seles. Some group of bandits had come and set fire to the carriage and had even gone so far as to kill some of the horses. In all of the panic and running about Erts had vanished. No one knew if he'd just run away or if the bandits had kidnapped him.

(X)

"Hey Ernest, look at what Grandpa gave me," Erts said, holding up a beautiful sapphire star. "He said it was for being good!"

"Yes, you were both very well behaved," he said smiling down at his younger brother. There had been so much business going on that their supposed family trip had ended up with the three of them spending lots of time with the guards. He had been pleasantly surprised at how well his two younger siblings had behaved. "You're both growing up so fast," he said pleasantly. He ruffled Erts and Kizuna's hair a bit in affection. "What does your star look like?" he asked his younger sister. He had to be fair after all.

"Pink!" She said, holding her small star up above her head and giggling.

"To match your hair, hmm? It's quite pretty." He took the glass star, something his mother's town was famous for making, and examined it. There was no doubt in his mind that one of the top glass craftsmen had made both of the stars that the children had received. He was turning the pink star over and looking for the craftsman's mark when the carriage came to a sudden halt. Both stars went flying as did the three children, all of them colliding onto the carriage floor. The stars shattered instantly. Ernest, not being fast enough to avoid the pieces, ended up landing on top of them. "Are you two alright?" He asked quickly.

"You're hurt, big brother!" Kizuna said, tears forming in her eyes. "You're bleeding!"

"I am fine. Erts, are you alright?" he asked, pushing himself up slowly. He couldn't quite get a good look at his siblings, but they didn't seem to be bleeding.

"Ye-yeah," Erts said, shaking.

A scream from outside the carriage got the children's attention. The two younger ones looked at Ernest, but he was already aware of what had to be done.

"You two stay put," he warned them. He helped the two younger ones get beneath the seats so that they couldn't be seen from the outside and climbed out of the carriage. In front of him stood both of his parents. His mother was crying; his father had his spear out and was standing in front of her, the weapon at a man's throat. One quick look told Ernest they were surrounded and that these people were no doubt bandits.

The guards that were supposed to be watching the two carriages had managed to be scattered, some of them being held in place by bandits and their weapons, others on the ground dead.

"What a pitiful sight you've become, Albert, not so strong now are we?" the man taunted.

"Looky there, it's a young Albert," one of the bandits said. Ernest wasn't sure which one it was, but he felt someone grab his wrists and shove him forward. "What's it going to be, "king"?" The bandit asked arrogantly. He seemed to really believe he had the upper hand. Ernest of course knew better.

"Let him go," King Albert warned the bandit leader. "My son has nothing to do with this."

"Doesn't he though? You killed my father. I think to make us even I should kill your son." He turned from Albert then, his eyes gleaming as he looked down at Ernest. He seemed hungry for his flesh, but the young prince wasn't about to let his life end here, not when he had two younger siblings to help look after. When the bandit leader made his move towards Ernest, King Albert suddenly started glowing, his form taking on that of the dragon warrior known as the dragoon. Ernest of course did not miss a beat and instead of trying to run towards his father, stepped back hard onto the foot of the bandit that was holding him. The man let out a screech and he turned around to face the man, ramming the bandit in the stomach with his head. When the bandit went down, his breath knocked out of him, Ernest finally turned heel and ran over to his mother. If he could keep her safe, then his father would be able to fight.

"Don't you ever-!" His mother started, but she went silent as the battle around them ensued. The guards had regained themselves once Albert had transformed and they were killing the bandits one by one.

"If I hadn't we would have been here for hours," Ernest said quietly. He wasn't too happy about having to see these men die, but they had brought it on themselves. How he wished Yu was here at the moment, his personal body guard and closest friend. He would know what to do and how to keep everyone safe. If Yu had been there along with his father, then none of these bandits would have even gotten a mile within the carriages.

The bandit leader did not seem happy with the turn of events. After only a few minutes it was just him and a handful of his gang left standing, none of whom looked too eager to keep fighting.

"That ain't the only kid Albert's got," the bandit leader said motioning to the carriage Ernest had come out of. "How much you wanna bet the other two are in there?"

"Stay away from them!" Albert warned, but the other bandits had already opened the door and were dragging Erts out by the arm. "ERTS!"

"Let me go!" Erts screamed trying to pull away, but the bandit of course was much stronger than the young boy. Ernest was about to run at the bandit leader himself, but a blinding light suddenly filled the entire clearing. Leaves and rose petals came from all directions and turned into a giant whirlwind. Ernest couldn't help but scream as branches came out, scratching at his arms and face and causing worse damage than those glass star pieces ever could have. The light died down, and when Ernest could see again, the storm had subsided. The carriages had been completely destroyed, and most of the bandits that had been left were dead. Unfortunately, there were some, including the bandit leader, who were not among the dead. Kizuna was clinging to their mother tightly, but Erts was nowhere in sight.

(X)

There had never been any kind of ransom and Erts body had never found, so the assumption was that the young prince was dead. Ernest was seventeen now, so the chances of actually ever seeing Erts again were low, but he hoped against all common sense that his little brother was somewhere safe. He shook his head, pushing the memories as far back into his mind as he could. They still remained, but for now he needed to focus on other things, like the moon sphere.

He opened the door to his room and walked in, slamming it shut behind himself. This was all too much for him to handle, yet what choice did he have? He had a responsibility to fulfill, even if he couldn't stand the idea of it. He would pray, beg even, but why bother? He knew the god of their planet was a hateful creature and would not bother to listen to him. Gods for their world were nothing more than monsters having a good time playing with human lives.

Sighing, he sat down on his bed and tried to piece everything together. The moon sphere was not supposed to cause any kind of alternations to its host, but what if something went wrong when he received it? What if his body decided to reject the object and turn him into some kind of monster? They had no idea, after all, how this newly formed object would react; it might not even be for humans anymore.

'Not that anyone seems to worry about that,' he thought closing his eyes. He'd mentioned his worries to Minister Noish, who was in charge of all the legends and mythology that made up their kingdom, and the man thought the idea foolish. That had made Ernest calm down slightly, but not enough to actually allow him a decent night of sleep. If only he wasn't royalty. If he hadn't been the oldest he could just run away from the castle and never return, avoid having to deal with the moon sphere all together, but for Kizuna's sake he'd stay. It wouldn't be fair if the girl had to guard two moon objects...perhaps _he_ could, though? It wouldn't be too far-fetched, would it? He'd have to ask in the morning though, for now he was starting to feel tired and he wasn't about to ignore a chance at some sleep.

(X)

"Are you sure this is such a great idea?" Dart asked. He was leaning against the wall near King Albert's chair, his arms folded across his red armored chest, his blue eyes full of concern. He wasn't sure what was going through his friend's mind, but it wasn't a sane thought, that was for sure. They had endured hell because of these moon objects just twenty years ago, why risk putting their children through it? "I don't think Ernest can handle something like this."

"That's complete nonsense. Ernest is mature enough, he's older than I was when I received the moon sp-"

"But this is a new one that suddenly came back after it was destroyed, and that we know nothing about," Dart pointed out. There was no telling if these moon objects were safe or if they were even the real deal for that matter. What if they were poisoned, and the second they went inside of someone, the person would die? "You could end up killing him, is that what you want?"

"Of course not!" Albert screamed. He got up from the chair, throwing his arms into the air. "What would you have me do, Dart? The royal families of each country are the guardians of these objects-"

"Exactly. Someone with a grudge against the royal families may have re-crafted these items as a plot to do them in. You know we all have a lot of enemies."

"I know..." The king closed his eyes, his shoulders slumping. "There isn't much we can do, though. These objects must be dealt with."

"I wish you would reconsider," Dart sighed, looking away. He knew there must be some underlying reason that Albert wasn't telling him. He knew the king would never intentionally harm his children, so something must be wrong.

"I wish I had the choice to do so," Albert said locking his gaze with Dart. "If I truly believed there was a choice to just destroy these objects I would, but-" a knock on the door disrupted their conversation. "Enter." Seconds later, Prince Ernest's personal body guard Yu walked into the room. Dart liked the boy, he may be quiet, but he was efficient and Ernest seemed to adore him.

"My king, Prince Ernest is deeply troubled," the boy said, bowing deeply. "As is the princess."

"You see, they can feel it just like we can, something's wrong. Call the ceremony off, let's find out more about these things before we go rushing into anything," Dart said firmly. "We can find another way to deal with the items."

"Dart," the king said turning to him. "You are one of the few people who I can truly call my friend. We have been through so much together, but this is something I must do," he said quietly. "I swear I'll explain myself in due time." He started to say something else, but shook his head and left the room, leaving Dart and Yu alone.

"Please watch over Ernest closely. He's going to be going through a lot with this ceremony and there's actually, no...We do not know how Ernest's body is going to react to this item," he admitted shaking his head his blonde spiky hair covering his eyes. He really wished things weren't moving so fast like this. The moon objects had only been discovered a week before and already they had scheduled the ceremony. "He is going to need a shoulder to lean on, you're his friend, allow him that shoulder." With that said he nodded to Yu and left. This was going to be a long ceremony.

(X)

"Ugh, how long is this going to take?" Zero whined. The brunette with brown eyes was currently standing in line at a booth waiting for his food to get finished cooking. He and his best friend Gareas were at the hero's competition, which wouldn't officially start for another two days, looking at all the vendors that had shown up in Lohan. Lohan was always busy, that was why Zero had wanted to move here from Seles in the first place, but now it was getting too busy for the boy's liking. "I've been standing here for ten minutes!" He screamed.

"Hold your horses boy," the vendor, a tall man in his thirties with long dark hair and eyes warned him. His eyes were narrowed, but Zero didn't care if the man was mad at him, he was beyond mad, he was starving! He'd been working all day doing errands for his boss, he just wanted some dinner.

"Wow, glad I decided on the chicken," a voice from behind him said. Zero turned around to see his friend Gareas standing there. It annoyed him that Gareas was only two years older than him, but was a good foot and a half taller. The guy was what you'd call 'good looking' with high cheek bones, spiky green hair, and dark green eyes. The girls were always following him around everywhere.

"You're not helping!" Zero screamed at his friend. Gareas merely grinned though and bit into his chicken leg, causing Zero to groan. Why had he wanted to buy beef? No, he couldn't have just settled for some chicken like his friend had, he had to get the pricey stuff.

"I'm helping amuse myself," Gareas grinned at Zero. The younger boy glared and slammed his foot down on Gareas' foot, causing him to scream and nearly drop his chicken leg. His reflexes, however, as not only the town's weapon shop keeper, but also one of the hero competition's winners, allowed him to catch it before it hit the ground and follow up with a return hit to Zero's arm. "Don't waste food!" He growled at him.

"Then stop teasing me!" The brunette whined. He didn't like being teased, especially not when he was so hungry.

"Here, take it! Get out and don't come back, either of you!" The vendor screamed shoving Zero's food into the boy's hand. He took it gratefully, paid, stuck his tongue out at the vendor and walked off with his friend. He took a bite of the food and swore he'd never tasted anything so delicious in his life.

"This is awesome Gar, you should get some," Zero said holding his meat up.

"You got us banned," Gareas said rolling his eyes. "Besides, I'm fine with what I got."

"Yeah, is Dabas going to meet us here?" Zero asked between bites.

"No, he said he'd had enough excitement for one day after you came so close to burning his shop down."

"It was an accident," Zero pouted. How was he supposed to know that the new sword they'd gotten could randomly erupt into flames if it sensed danger of any kind? Dabas hadn't told him, so he'd thought it was just a normal old sword and didn't bother with a magic seal. Big mistake, because after Zero had come in screaming an hour later, the sword had felt threatened and started burning, nearly taking the shop down with it. "He should have said it was magical!"

"Most of the stuff you guys deal with is magical," Gareas said sounding amused, which of course made Zero angrier.

"Well if you're so smart, you deal with all our stuff," Zero huffed. "I still get the pay though," Zero added to make sure that Gareas knew the deal. He wasn't going to let Gareas do his job and get the money.

"Yeah, that's a horrible deal," the older teen said shaking his head. "I'm not stupid like you, I can get paid for my services."

"YOU!" Zero started, but Gareas grabbed his hand and rammed his meat into his mouth causing him to start choking.

"Look, this is fun and all, but I'm not really in the mood to fight," he said, looking down at Zero. "I just don't have that kind of energy anymore." Zero looked up at his friend somewhat sadly and nodded. Gareas hadn't been himself since his girlfriend had died three years ago. They'd been so close and engaged to get married later that year, but she'd gotten sick and never recovered. The doctors hadn't been able to do anything for her.

Zero really thought that three years was enough to get over a death, even if it was his girlfriend, but any time he brought it up Gareas got mad and refused to talk to him for days, something Zero couldn't stand. He needed to have some kind of interaction with people, he hated being alone.

"Fine," he said when he'd finally managed to swallow the hunk of meat that had gotten caught in his throat. "Be that way, you always suck all the fun out of everything, y'know that? I need to find someone with some more life in them." They both knew Zero wouldn't go looking for someone else- he'd known Gareas for too long and wasn't about to abandon him now. Nevertheless, he really wished there was some way he could snap his friend out of this.

(X)

Gareas shut the door to his home. He'd just gotten Zero out of it after being forced to deal with the kid for the past two hours at the competition arena. Sure there were a lot of cool vendors there, but what he really wanted was to be alone.

He made his way to his bedroom, kicking his boots off as he went. Before Leena had died, she always used to scold him for leaving his things behind, but with no one to tell him not to, why not? It wasn't like he was going to have any company, especially not in his bedroom.

Sighing, he slammed the door shut once he was in his room and looked at the giant painting of Leena over his bed. This was the only time he got to see her; he couldn't bring himself to visit her grave often and even when he managed to, Dabas had go to with him to keep him stable. It was never a pretty sight.

He closed his eyes and fell onto his bed stretching out. He knew it was pointless to be so obsessed with his dead girlfriend, but he was so in love with her even now that she'd been gone for so long... he just couldn't forget her and the emotions he had for her. Dabas had told him he needed to get rid of her portrait because it was unhealthy, or at least move it out of his bedroom, but to hell with what was healthy, who could possibly take Leena's place? He'd never found a single person who made him feel even remotely the same way as she had.

"It's pointless," he said with a strained laugh. "Leena was my soul mate and she was taken from me. I should have been the one to get sick...she could have lived, found someone better than me."

(X)

A teen with light silver hair stood watching the commotion that was the town of Lohan. Most human cities were annoying enough, but this one that was considered a commercial town and also happened to be holding a hero competition was by far the worse he'd ever been forced to walk in to. One sniff of the air told him that the item he'd been looking for was in this town somewhere, but the exact location he wasn't sure of. There had to be weapon stores in the town, or it could be with one of the vendors. The bad thing was that even as he stood there watching the people walk around, more and more vendors seemed to keep coming. It was going to take him forever to locate the weapon he was looking for, but then again he'd known that ahead of time.

Letting out a long sigh, he walked away out of the alley he'd been standing in and started for the inn. He hadn't wanted to stay there, but it was the best location to be in case the item he was after started moving.

He was just about to turn when someone came in front of him, ramming into him head-on. The boy cursed, as he'd never felt himself so distracted before, but all these humans...

"S-sorry!" The boy who'd ran into him said. "I didn't see you, well I guess since you're dressed completely in black and have a black cloak and hood you're trying not to be seen, but you should really watch it, it's way too busy out here to be in an outfit like that," the boy said matter-of-factly. "I'd put on some bright colors, see." He made it a point to strike a pose so that he could show off his red tunic. "I stand out even though it's dark out and the light is low."

"You'd stand out anyway with how annoying you are," the teen said, glaring at the boy in front of him. He knew humans could be self absorbed, but this was ridiculous.

"I AM NOT ANNOYING!" the boy screamed. "Do you know how long a day I've had to wo-"

"Like I care," the teen seethed, shoving past him.

"HEY!"

"Stay out of my way," he warned the boy. He didn't have time to deal with people, especially not annoying children who were just standing about trying to get on his nerves. He sniffed the air again, trying to see if the scent of his object was closer. The boy who'd smacked into him was still behind him screaming, not that he really cared. He was surprised, however, when he realized he did indeed sense something. He sniffed one more time to make sure he wasn't crazy and stopped in his tracks. Something out of the ordinary, perhaps something else he'd been looking for, was also in this village. The scent was strong, so there was no doubt about it-somewhere within this town was the key he'd been searching for.

"Finally," he said, shaking slightly. It seemed that his goal was so close now that he could taste it. He already had one piece of the puzzle and soon he'd have another after he obtained the weapon he was looking for here. To get the key as well...he'd never even dared to dream they would all be so close at hand. "I might just get some sleep tonight," he said, and began to laugh.

(TBC)

Alright, the first chapter was rewritten to make much more sense. I think I still failed at descriptions, but the story still had a much smoother flow to it than the original one so let's hope that it stays that way now. x.x Now to fix up the other chapters so I can get onto the new ones.


	2. Moon Sphere

Rewriting this...is odd, because I didn't realize the tense I had written it in...so yeah, going to fix it now.

This story will be a Yaoi. It will be Hiead and Zero, Gareas and Ernest, and the couple's people are going to attack me for! Erts and Clay, and then finally Rioroute and Yu Hikura. (Yes very... strange...but I'm a very weird kid.) If you're that dense,

**Yaoi **means **GUY **with **GUY!**

**Yuri** means **GIRL** with **GIRL!  
**  
And

**Straight** means **GUY** with **GIRL!** Or **GIRL** with **GUY!**

You **have** been **Warned** !

Notes: For thoughts 'man what a long day' zero thought to himself, So you won't be lost.

Is Pov change. Thoughts will be pouted out as ' insert thoughts '

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter, 2: Moon Sphere

'This is it…' Ernest thought to himself looking around the throne room a fake smile on his face. Truly, Ernest wanted to be as far away from here as he could. All the people that were in the room made him feel very uncomfortable and more than uneasy, even if he had been prepared to do this for a while. His father had explained everything to him and what he had to expect, just like he had with so many other things that Ernest had, had to do throughout his life, but this time just wasn't the same. Trying to calm himself down he let out a slow breath and closed his eyes before opening them to take in the familiar settings.

Even though the ceremony was going on, the room looked no different than it usually did, save for all the people gathered in it. The two big windows, one on each side of the throne, showed the now setting sun. The huge wall scroll made of carpet like material behind the throne itself, green in color bearing the symbol of basil on it. The steps against the back wall led back down to stairs that would take you to the main hall, a red carpet covering it's stone like appearance. Ernest usually felt comfortable in this room, especially when he was there having his lessons with minister Noish, but now it was making him feel sick.

Ernest's father, King Albert, was currently in front of his throne giving a speech about responsibility and how happy he was to have gotten the "Moon Sphere" back. His father too was dressed in his normal tan pants, yellow tunic, and green cape. His hair still went to his shoulders and as always was still in a pony tail. Seeing as how old he was though, Ernest found it odd that all his father's hair wasn't graying yet.

Ernest was trying to focus his thoughts in as he heard his father get closer to the end of the speech. In all honesty, knowing what kind of power the moon sphere had, he wanted nothing to do with it, but he was a member of the royal family and as such, a guardian of the sphere. He was still about ready to scream when one of the servants ran down the side of the huge crowd and over to the king.

"M, M'lord! There's been an explosion," The servant said excitedly.

King Albert's eyes widen considerably, his speech forgotten.

"Wh, what! Who did this," The king demanded. The crowd went silent from hearing the usually calm and collected king's out burst. The servant took a few steps back in fear.

Ernest knew that his father like himself was usually quiet and calm. Seeing the king outburst like this meant the end of the world to some people. He took a look around the room taking note of all his family members. He was just about to allow himself some relief when he saw Kizuna in her seat next to his mother. He'd forgotten that when Kizuna was of age she'd be receiving the moon dagger.

'I can't let this happen,' he thought to himself looking away from his sister. 'There has to be some other way!'

"We don't know. The protector of-"

"Yes of course. I'll be in the meeting room shortly."

"Aye!" The servant ran off out of the room.

'I'm scared…father why are you forcing me to do this….?' Ernest shifted a bit uneasily. 'I don't want this to happen…but no one cares. I'm alone…I need someone….anyone…I'm sick of being alone..'

Ernest lowered his head and King Albert put the sphere into his back. At first he wanted to scream, but he suddenly felt his friend Yu walk into the room. He managed to just wince and was glad no one saw it. 'It hurts…why did he have to do it so fast?' He sighed and then tensed when he felt arms wrapping around his body.

**"Relax, you aren't alone. I'm here with you."**

'Who are you?' Ernest felt himself relax a bit and be it a ghost or someone who shared his gift, he put full trust into them. If they could help him relax, even just a little, that was all he needed.

**"You can hear me?"**

'Yes….'

"**I think I'm leaving." **

Ernest's eyes widen in shock, as he didn't want this ghost or whatever it was to go. There had to be some way to keep it there with him, but perhaps the only reason it had appeared in the first place was for support for him to take the sphere into his body. Perhaps it was a spirit within the stone? His father had never mentioned one...

'I don't want to be alone….'

**"I'll find you." **

The arms around Ernest disappeared and he sighed looking up at the crowed of people who were cheering loudly. He forced a smile, which he had done so many times today. It was so easy and no one ever noticed the act anymore. King Albert put his hand up on Ernest's shoulder and squeezed it gently. Ernest turned around to face his father who was smiling at him.

"You'll be very happy for this, one day," Albert said in a low whisper. Ernest nodded wanting nothing more than to go to his room and to be alone. King His father gave him a small nod and walked away his green cape and pony tail both flowing gently as he walked away.

The crowd cheered ever louder and bowed before Ernest. Ernest who still had a fake smile on his face bowed back and then took a few steps back as the guards came and starting ushering everyone out of the throne room to go outsides for the big feast. When the room was finally empty, Ernest let out a small sigh and sat down on the stairs. He looked up hearing a loud scream and saw Kizuna at the bottom of the stairs running up to him, well trying to. Every few steps she'd trip on her dress and fall flat on her face or on her hands if she was lucky enough to catch herself.

"Ernest!" Ernest smiled and got up walking down the steps quickly. He picked her up and sat her down on his lap gently.

"Are you okay?" He asked. He could barely get himself to look at her knowing that she would be going through this same kind of ceremony later on in life. It just wasn't fair that these objects had returned.

Kizuna nodded throwing her arms around him causing him to wince. One, because his back was still a bit sore from the "Moon Sphere" and the other being that the minute Kizuna touched him all of her thoughts and memories flooded into him. He tried not to read them ,but of course they had a mind of there own most of the time. He tried as hard as he could to block them out and get his own shield up when one thought rang clearly through his mind

**"I'm sorry…it's going to be awhile before I can start looking for you….wait for me."**

'Alright,' Ernest found himself replying before he could think. He got his force field up and all of Kizuna's thoughts stopping flowing into his mind, a utter relief. He had enough issues with shorting out his own thoughts let alone trying to go through a nine year old's.

"Ernest! Are you okay?" Her voice was filled with worry and sounded near tears. Ernest hugged her tightly. She seemed so fragile anymore with all that had happened to their family.

"Kizuna, I'm okay. Really." She gave him a hard look, nodded and tightened her embrace.

"Mom, Aunt Lisa, and Grandpa Zior want to see you," she said looking up at him. Ernest nodded then getting to his feet and putting Kizuna down. He'd already known this talk was coming. Now that he had the moon sphere in his body it was his job to guard it at all costs, but he was also responsible for finding a bride too.

"Okay. Let's go see them," he said holding hand out to her. She grabbed it happily and the two of them began walking down the rest of the steps.

"I'm glad the Moon sphere didn't change you big brother."

"Yes. So am I," he said smiling at her gently. The truth was however he wasn't sure if that was the case or not. He did feel a bit different now with the sphere inside of him, but there was the chance it was just a state of mind. Only time would tell if the sphere would change him or not.

They walked down the second set of stairs and turned left heading down one of the long halls. It was rather quiet even with the big celebration going on outside. Just as they were about to turn another corner, Ernest slammed into a boy with black hair and gray eyes. He was just a bit shorter than Ernest and was wearing his normal dark green tunic with a dark red design on black cloth in the middle of it his sleeves a mix of the same colors.

His younger sister with brown hair and eyes was kneeling down next to him trying to see if he was okay. She was wearing a rare pink, yellow, and blue flower designed kimono brought over from the village of Rouge, Ernest had paid for it personally.

Yu shook his head a bit trying to clear it of shock from being ran into it seemed, the prince couldn't blame him.

"Sorry!" Ernest said and held his hand out to his personal body guard who took it getting to his feet. Here the poor guy was supposed to be keeping him out of harms way and Ernest was hurting him, himself.

"Thanks," was all he said as he brushed himself off. Ernest couldn't help, but smile at him. He knew Yu wouldn't hold this action against him and yet he wouldn't make a big deal out of being ran into by the prince. Any other guard always had a nervous break down if Ernest accidentally ran into them a rather common occurrence when he had his shields up

"I didn't see you at the ceremony, but I felt your presence. I'm glad that you were there. I have to talk with my mother now though. Would you like to come?" Yu shrugged and his sister Kazuhi walked over to Kizuna. She smiled at Kizuna and the princess smiling back. They talked in whispers the rest of the way behind their brothers.

"So, Yu, have you been well lately? I haven't seen you for awhile now." Yu shrugged again following Ernest. All the prince could do was smile as Yu opened the door to the room. "I see. Training to become stronger." He wished Yu would say more, but he would take anything he could get right now and even better, Yu he could read without actually having to read his mind, their relationship was close enough for them to have a good understanding of each other.

Yu nodded and the four of them walked into the room. The room was one of the family relaxation rooms in the castle. It wasn't what you'd call dark, but it wasn't all that bright either. There were no windows in this room, but was lit with a few oil lamps and torches giving off a dark dreamy look. The red drapes hanging from the ceiling clashed beautifully with the dark blue carpet and forest green furniture. Ernest spent a lot of time in this room as it was rarely filled with his family members.

Ernest's mother, aunt, and grandpa were all sitting down in the stuffed chairs talking. They all looked up at him when the door opened. Yu and his little sister were about to leave when Ernest grabbed Yu's wrist. Yu looked up at him questionably and he smiled.

"We've been friends for sixteen years now. Please, stay." he said. The last thing he wanted was to be left alone with these people, having Yuwith him would give him an advantage he was desperately in need of.

Yu nodded slowly and walked into the room, his younger sister following. Ernest closed the door as soon as they were in the room so they had no chance of running and turned to his family members.

"Wonderful performance! You did extremely well, dear boy," King Zior said loudly standing up and smiling. King Zior was a bit of a plump man and was wearing his long blue robe and tan pants with a dark blue shirt. His graying hair still had it's crown on as always. He stood up and closed the space between him and Ernest and grabbed the prince's shoulder squeezing it hard. "I wish you the best of luck from now on! Pray, do tell! When do you plan to get married?" Ernest started blushing a deep red and His mother Emille was on her feet quickly and walked over to her son hugging him tightly.

"Father, leave my son alone," She said jokingly. Both Queen Emille and Princess Lisa looked beautiful even at these ages. Emille's hair was up as always, her long dress it's trademark reddish pink and white looking like the morning twilight. Lisa's hair was no longer in pig tails like it used to be. Her hair now in one pony tail and braided falling all the way down to her lower back. She was also wearing her trademark dress of yellow and orange evening twilight.

"Aww, come now! The boy must have someone in mind! Who's the lucky girl," Zior asked loudly still smiling and repeatedly patting Ernest hard on the shoulders causing the teen to wince, his knees almost buckling with every pat.

"We, well…I umm…I never really thought about getting married to any girls yet." Which was true. Now boys on the other hand. He'd seen a lot of suitable men he'd love to be with, but the girls just bored him to death, less they were out shopping or eating. King Zior rolled his eyes at Ernest and finally stopped hitting him.

"Ahh, fine! Be that way, keep it to yourself, but you better find yourself a bride before I go into my grave." Everyone laughed save for Yu who rarely ever laughed. Ernest was not to worried about his grandfathers demand fir as old as Zior was, there was little doubt that he'd be dying anytime soon.

"Alright. I will." Ernest knew this would mean his unhappiness however as the prince of this kingdom he really had no choice in the matter. He would no doubt end up in a forced arranged marriage with someone he had nothing in common with. 'I wish I could be with that spirit that held me….if he's alive and real…' Ernest thought to himself smiling.

"Ah-Ha," Zior screamed out smiling causing Ernest to jump.

"Wh, what!" The prince asked quickly, everyone in the room was now staring at the king.

"There is someone you like. Now tell me who it is!" Emille shook her head tsking at her father/

"We just went through this. Stop pestering the boy," The Queen ordered. Zior merely started laughing. Ernest wished his grandfather really would drop the subject it was in a way making him quite depressed knowing he would be forced to live a depressing life the minute his parents found a suitable marriage candidate.

"I'm just messin with him. That's all!" The king said loudly.

"Yes, well mess with someone else or Ernest at some other time." The door clicked open and a boy with brown hair, wearing blue pants, and a white tunic walked in. He looked quite good for a servant and blushed a bit when everyone in the room turned to look at him.

"M…M'lord…umm...your, your uncle wishes to see you." Ernest blinked a few times in shock. Lisa hadn't married yet and the only other uncle Ernest had was Doel. Ernest and his uncle Doel were quite close even though they barely saw each other. For some reason they just understood one another. Perhaps it was the fact they both wanted something they could never have.

Doel had been heart broken when his wife had died at a young age. Devastated by that fact and he had almost dragged Basil down into the ground, going as far as to try and kill Ernest's father, King Albert. Luckily enough though Albert's friends Lavitz and Dart had saved him along with a group of others. Lavitz, his fathers best friend and most loyal knight had died that day.

Every year now King Albert would hold a small ceremony to honor Lavitz. Ernest sometimes wondered if his father may have had a crush on the knight, but knew it could never be so didn't tell anyone. Dart had lived and would no doubt be here today, probably talking to Ernest's farther right now at the meeting since he'd been at the ceremony.

"M'lord?" Ernest snapped out of his thoughts and looked back over to the servant.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to go into a daze."

"Tis alright, M'Lord. Will you be going?" Ernest looked over to the rest of his family. His mother was frowning deeply, but nodding. Emille never liked Doel. She thought he was a mean, cruel, and heartless man. Ernest frowned at those thoughts. Doel had been driven mad, because of how much his emotions affected him, not because he didn't have any.

'If she doesn't understand Uncle Doel and hates him…and I'm a lot like Uncle Doel. I wonder if she'll ever be able to understand me…'

"Yes. I'm coming." Ernest gave a small bow to his family and smiled turning to Yu. "I'll see you at the feast if they succeed in dragging me to it." Yu nodded and Ernest walked out of the room. The moment he closed the door behind himself he quickened his pace causing the servant to have to nearly run to keep up with him.

"M'Lord, do you even know where your uncle is?" the servant asked quickly.

"Yes, he's in the new quarters connecting to the throne room!" Ernest grinned. Just the thought of seeing his uncle right now made him happy, he could talk to his relative and perhaps get some answers about the moon sphere.

"You never cease to amaze me M'lord! You always find out what you want," the servant said laughing Ernest nodded to the servant his smile widening a bit as he made it closer to the stair case and started running up them. The servant started laughing harder. "No one could ever tell you're a noble if for not the way you're dressed M'lord." The comment only made Ernest smile more, as if he really cared if he looked like a royal family member all the time. When he came to the room his uncle was in he nearly felt like flying.

"You don't have to announce me. I'm just going to go right in." The servant nodded and walked off still laughing. Ernest stopped at the door and took a deep breath trying to compose himself. After a few moments he knew that wasn't going to happen. He opened the door to the room still smiling and walked in. Without a second thought he shut the door and walked over to his uncle throwing his arms around him tightly. "UNCLE DOEL!"

Doel smiled his bluish gray eyes sparkling. His was wearing his usual clothes, black, dark purple, red pants with matching shirt along with his black boots. Doel never wore his crown unless forced to or when sitting on his throne and one of the commoners were coming to ask questions of him or another king or queen was visiting him from another country. Ernest thought this was a great way to be, even if his father didn't completely agree with it.

"Been with Yu now, have you?" Doel snickered.

Ernest blushed pulling back so he could get a good look at his Uncle Doel. He was the only one besides Erts, who knew about him not liking girls. He also knew that Ernest had, had a crush on Yu, but Ernest had told him a long time ago that his crush was over. Ernest really wished he could find someone else to possibly date, he would love to have a boyfriend before he was forced to get a wife.

"Uncle Doel," Ernest said teasingly. Doel smiled messing up Ernest's hair.

"What? You found someone new? Who's the unlucky guy?" Doel joked more. Ernest smiled wearily and took a seat beside his uncle.

"Well….I have no idea who he is. Or even if he's real." Doel raised an eyebrow at this, Ernest couldn't blame him, he was questioning his sanity himself.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…." Ernest blushed a bit tried his best to explain everything that had happened during the ceremony and all his fears about the moon sphere and what it might do to him.

Doel was patient and nodded in agreement at the appropriate times to show that he was listening. When Ernest was all done Doel was quiet for a moment no doubt taking it all in. He rubbed his breaded chin for a few moments then smiled.

"Well. T'would seem that you have someone, somewhere that is quite fond of you. Perhaps one day you will meet him...As for the moon sphere, I wouldn't worry about it. Your father never became rabid after getting it."

"Well that's good to know," the prince said smiling. "He said that he'd come and look for me….but I'd have to wait for him." Doel frowned a bit at that.

"I know that sounds good, but how can anyone get to you? You are the prince after all."

Ernest smiled a small smile looking completely calm and at peace. His voice was soft and in an almost dreamlike tone he replied.

"I'll know. When he gets here and starts looking for me, I'll know."

**(X)**

Zero sighed staring at the bed. After Gareas had passed out while him and the doctor had been talking, he hadn't moved once. Zero would of thought him dead if it hadn't been for his breathing. 'At least Hiead didn't kill him,' Zero thought yawning and stretching his arms out. He really wished Dabus hadn't been killed by Hiead either, but at least one of his friends were still alive. With Dabus gone though he wondered if he was going to have to return to Seles, he didn't think he could run the shop alone...maybe Gareas and him could run both the weapon shop and Dabus'? He moved his arms on top of the back of the chair he was sitting in backwards, folded them and rested his head on them.

'Man Gar come on! It's been over an hour already! WAKE UP!' The doctor seemed to notice Zero's ever growing inpatients and laughed.

"Why don't you go home, Zero? There's nothing you can do right now." The brunette looked up at the doctor sighing.

"Well…I'm from Seles. I don't have any family here save for Gar. I don't want to abandoned him here, while I'm at home sleeping." The doctor smiled giving a small nod to Zero and went back to stirring some herbs. Zero sighed again in boredom. 'I need something to do.

Anything at all-' Zero's thoughts were interrupted by his stomach growling. He'd been in the doctor's office all day and hadn't eaten once. Sighing he stood up and turned to the doctor.

"I'm going to get some food. Want any?" He asked stretching. He hadn't realized how sore his body was from sitting in the chair for so long.

"Could you pick me up some bread and a bottle of milk?" The doctor asked. Zero nodded smiling.

"Sure thing! I'll even get Gar something to eat!" Zero took the money from the doctor and ran out of the doctor's office at top speed, he could hear the doctor laughing behind him.

(X)

'Man, he's finally gone,' Gareas thought sitting up slowly the minute Zero closed the door behind him. The doctor was still laughing when he turned to Gareas.

"Trying to avoid your friend, hmm?" The doctor asked when he got his laughing under control, a smile still on his face.

Gareas started to sigh and it ended up turning into a yawn.

"Only the hundred of questions he'll throw my way," he said rubbing the back of his head. "He's just too hyper for me right now."

The doctor started laughing again at this and handed Gar a herb.

"Eat this before Zero comes back with your food."

"Thanks." Gareas nodded taking the herb and ate it.

"No need for a thank you, this is my job."

A few minutes after Gareas swallowed the herb Zero skipped through the door holding onto two bags of food.

"I got the food," Zero screamed spinning around and putting the food down on the doctor's table. He took out a small bowl of soup, some bread and milk and gave it to the doctor. "You need more than bread, don't worry I paid for it."

"Thank you," The doctor said smiling and took the bowl gratefully. He removed the lid off of the soup and started eating it.

"No problem doctor!" Zero smiled handing Gareas a piece of wrapped up cooked meat and also gave him some bread and milk.

"Thanks," Gareas said looking down at the foot. He wasn't completely sure if he wanted to eat or not, but he did feel a bit hungry at least.

"Glad to see you're awake and you're welcome!" Zero sat down and bit into his own piece of meat and started eating it hungrily. They ate in silence until the doctor and Gareas were done. By that time Gareas had woken up completely and was trying to stretch the soreness out of his body.

(X)

"Zero. I'm going after that guy," Gareas said in seriously. Zero hadn't heard Gar sound so serious in a long time that it caused him to choke on some of the bread he was eating.

"You're going after Hiead!" Even though Zero should of expected this and pretty much had, actually hearing the words come out of Gareas's made him feel uneasy. Hiead had undoubtedly done some awful things, there was no denying that, but even so...

"Who?"

"The guy who attacked you! Hiead!" Gareas's eyes narrowed a bit.

"You know him," Gar demanded. Zero lowered his head instantly frowning. He already knew that despite what Hiead had done that he would do whatever it took to keep him safe. He didn't know why yet, but he wasn't about to let the guy die, he just couldn't.

"N, no…I just….I talked to him after he attacked you…." Zero tried to explain, it was an awful attempt.

"I see…" Gareas was frowning now and an awakened silence started to set in between the two. Zero started to fidget trying to think of some way to break the silence, but he couldn't think of anything that would make things better. Even so, he had to think fast or Hiead might end up in a grave, or worse, Gareas might.

"I'm coming with you!" Zero said a second later. This caused Gar's head to snap up in shock and look at the brunette.

"WHAT!"

"YOU AREN'T LEAVING ME BEHIND," Zero screamed. "I refuse to go home!" Actually, Zero didn't care too much about whether or not he went home or not, he just couldn't stand the thought of his best friend going on some kind of journey alone. 'Besides….I want to believe that Hiead's a good guy. Please don't be the bad guy….' Zero thought firmly glaring at Gareas. Gareas sighed and nodded, which was a good thing, because Zero would have gone whether Gar wanted him to or not.

"Fine."

Zero smiled at this and went back to eating his bread.

Gareas didn't look to happy about what had just happened, but Zero decided not to let it bother him. His friend and him could handle anything, alone Gar might die. Traveling together would be good for the both of them.

TBC

I was a rather hyper child when I wrote these...


	3. Dreams

Ah the next chapter, it took a bit of time, but all of them do. I hope you guys enjoy it.

Warnings: It's shonen ai, don't like, don't read

Notes: **(X)** is pov of and or time change. Thoughts are 'insert thoughts'

Thank you.

Chapter, 3: Dreams

Ernest sighed smiling and lied onto his back on his bed.

'That would be so wonderful,' he thought to himself as the dream replayed in his mind. A boy his age about the same height was there, comforting him as he lied in bed crying from some unknown pain. Whatever it was, Ernest wouldn't mind being in pain if it meant being comforted by that boy. The bad thing was he'd never gotten to see the boys face, just heard his soft soothing voice in his ear as he sat next to him stroking his hair gently. He let out a small sigh and stretched out more knowing there was not much he could do about it. Dreams were just illusions of desires played throughout ones mind after all.

'What I wouldn't do for that to be true.' He rolled over onto his stomach so he could get his pillow under his chin. 'If I take down my shield…I'll be forced to hear a bunch of thoughts, but…I want to hear his thoughts…his voice…I want to see him…-' his thoughts were interrupted by someone opening the door to his room.

"MY LORD!" Ernest looked up his thoughts now completely gone from the servant's outburst. The servant himself looked panicked, nothing like the ones before who were just trying to get him to come downstairs for the feast.

"What's wrong," he asked instantly sensing the fear from the atmosphere around them. Yu pushed his way past the man and ran into the room as quickly as he could. He looked himself somewhat unnerved and to Ernest's shock, blood dripping from the left side of his eye. "Yu!"

"My lord, the castle is under attack. You're their target you must leave."

"What about you? And Kizuna?"

"The rest of your family is safe. I'll be going with you."

"What about-"

"My little sister is safe," Yu cut Ernest off almost like he was the one able to read thoughts. "Now let's go," he demanded grabbing Ernest by the wrist. The prince was grateful he still had his shield up and nodded following Yu out of the room to wherever their destination was. He wanted to know what was going on, but knew asking any questions was pointless. Yu wouldn't answer a thing until he was sure Ernest was safe and the prince taking his shields down when an attack was going on was something not even he was foolish enough to attempt.

'They must be after the moon sphere,' he thought wishing he could find a corner to curl up in. He knew this blasted thing would cause nothing, but problems for him.

Yu led them down the hallway quickly forcing Ernest to run at some points. When they finally made it to the end of the hall Yu pushed some bricks in that turned out to be a hidden door that even he didn't know about. The guard pushed him in and then followed himself pulling the hidden door closed behind him. He nodded to the staircase and started down them the prince having no choice, but to follow.

"We're going to end up at the left side of the castle. No matter what, you do not stop," he said in all seriousness leaving no room for debate in his tone. "Do not stop," he said again this time so demanding that it almost made Ernest wince. When they made it down the long twisting brick staircase Yu took a deep breath and pushed the door wide open. The sight that met Ernest's eyes almost made him scream.

There were dead bodies everywhere, the ground literally covered, some of their faces twisted in silent screams from what must have been a horrible death. Those with facial expressions that showed nothing probably didn't even realize they had died till the last second. To make matters even worse the entire village of Bale before him was ablaze smoke rising in almost every direction he could look. Ernest looked around trying to spot some kind of enemy and to his horror saw the men and knights of the village fighting…nothing. They were using their swords to slash at thin air. Ernest frowning at this turned to Yu for an explanation. Yu refused to give any words though and after checking to make sure the coast was clear pulled his lord with him.

"Why are they attack the air," Ernest demanded as he was forced to quicken his pace to keep up with Yu.

"They don't know it's air. Most of their awareness' are too weak to see that those are just illusions," Yu answered after Ernest had jerked his arm a few times. He didn't bother to give his prince a full explanation though or even look at him and Ernest knew he'd been given the pointless answer that explained nothing, but he was going to be told, this was his home.

"So who is attacking then? Who did all this?"

"A sorcerer, that's all we know." Ernest detected some trace hint of an emotion when Yu had said that, but couldn't get anything more out of him, not with his shields up anyway. He remained silent for a while as they ran for the front gates. Just as they turned the corner, though to where the fest was being held Ernest stopped dead in his tracks his blood going cold. Most of the chairs were knocked over onto the ground, some broken, and others mere ashes where they had once stood. The tables were covered with dead people, the white clothes on them now stained with blood as if this had been a sacrificial feast offering for some demonic creature of the dead.

There no more then ten feet away from this mass of decay and death was Doel, Albert, and Albert's friend Dart. They all had their weapons out, Doel his dark and light twin swords, Albert his trusty spear, and Dart with a bastard sword. Dart was frowning slashing again and again at a huge white creature with two huge black eyes. The thing looked more like a giant skeleton with a huge green sphere shoved into its giant forehead then anything, but it was actually moving. Its skin was white and hard as rock, one hand containing long claw like fingers while the other one looked like it belonged to a crab. It was growling and at some points trying to shoot what looked like lasers from out of the green sphere in its head at them only to miss each time. Ernest knew from the stories his father had told him what this thing was.

"Virage…" He whispered under his breath barely believing there was actually one standing in front of him and the fact it was really about the same height as the castle. Yu looked at the prince quickly when he heard him say the word 'Virage.'

"What?" It seemed Yu was showing emotions more than usual, Ernest was beginning to realize that his friend was a lot more fearful than he wanted to let on.

"Virage. The Winglies used Virage's as a trump card to try and beat the humans, but father always said that him and Dart had killed the last one…" Yu frowned a bit, barely noticeable to the untrained eye and looked back to the fight that was in front of them. They looked like they were doing their best against this creature, but for some reason it just wasn't working.

"Dart! This isn't working," Ernest heard his father scream out. Dart was shaking his head trying to keep his blonde spiky hair out of his face. He pushed his bandana up and that seemed to fix the problem. It was a good thing Dart was also wearing his usual clothes, upper red body armor that covered the top part and his left arm, but left his right arm free to handle his word and the same belt he always wore wrapped around him connecting to his sheath, his black pants with red knee guards and brown boots to complete the warriors outfit. If he'd actually been dressed for the ceremony he'd have probably been dead already.

"No! His life is fading! Just a few more hits," Dart screamed back to Albert. The king nodded just jumping back in the nick of time to dodge one of the Virage's claws. "This is it! Hit with everything you got!" They all ran at it and stopped short as the Virage was lifted into the air. A man with silverish white hair had walked out from behind the other side of the castle, he was smiling, his hand held out palm facing them.

"The moon sphere."

"We won't let you get in," Dart hissed his tone just daring the man to try to take it from them. The man's smile turned into a smirk and he moved his hand down to the hilt of his sword. Dart's determined look suddenly broke into a frown as he watched the man's movements. "Lloyd?" Ernest's face quickly began to match Dart's at hearing the name. Even though Dart had married Shana, another one of his father's travel companions, it was only due to the fact that Dart's lover, Lloyd, had died.

All of a sudden, a burst of green light and a tornado with leaves surrounded Albert. His spear became far more deadly and advance looking that could do much more damage than his normal weapon ever could hope to achieve while oddly shaped green armor formed over his body, wings sprouting from his back. When the tornado disappeared, he was wearing the full green body armor he'd been wearing the day Erts' had vanished. Ernest's eyes widened trying to take all of it in.

"Forgive me Dart, Lloyd or not, I will not let him hurt my family," Albert tried to explain as he fell into a battle position. The man being called Lloyd unsheathed his sword.

"How you know my brother I do not know, but my name is Hiead."

"Hiead," Dart repeated the words slowly. "Lloyd's younger brother?" Hiead smirked.

"Yes." With that said he ran at Albert and to everyone's horror shoved the blade through the king's armor and into his stomach. Albert's eyes widen in shock and he started to scream out in pain as gray and black mixed with blood red flames began to surround the blade and blast into his body. Ernest himself could not believe what was going on and felt like running, but the shock alone kept him in his place.

"Fa, father…!" He almost tried to again to run over to his father to give him any kind of help that he needed, but Yu grabbed his wrist holding him firmly. "No! Yu let me go," he screamed through gritted teeth trying his best to pull away. Yu refused to let him go however and jerked the prince back so they were safely hidden from view.

"If you go over there now, your father's death will be in vain," he said solemnly instantly catching Ernest's attention.

"Albert!" Both Doel's and Dart's voices' screamed out in union as they watched the smirking Hiead pull the blade out of Albert's stomach. Albert fell out of the air and onto his knees and then because of the weight of his armor, onto his back. Dart looked over to Hiead tears streaking down his face.

(X)

Seeing Hiead kill Albert was like seeing Lloyd kill Lavitz all over again. Ironic how Lavitz, Albert's and Dart's closest friend was killed Lloyd, and his younger brother would come back to kill Albert, but how could Dart kill someone who had the same face as his dead lover?

"Why," Dart asked in a lower whisper his shoulders shaking badly as his sadness and confusion turned to anger. "WHY?" He demanded slamming his sword into the ground. "Why did you have to kill him?"

"Oh, I understand now." Hiead's smirk looked even more deadlier than before. "I thought I recognized you. You're my late brother's lover. Well, this does make things interesting." He walked over to the Virage and then turned back to look at them. "I'll ease your pains and give my brother what is rightfully his!" The Virage rose higher into the air and looked down at them.

(X)

There sphere on the Virage's head started glowing and everyone standing in front of them was lost within its blinding bright light. The only thing that could be seen through it was a small green light as it rose into the sky and disappeared. A few seconds later that same green light slowly descended back to the ground and landed in Ernest's hands. The light solidified into a green sphere. Tears began to fall down Ernest's face. 'Just like when Lavtiz had died,' he thought to himself the story going through his mind. When Lavtiz had finally left this world the Green Tusked Dragon, Feyrbrand's dragoon spirit had chosen Albert as its new master and now it had chosen him.

Visibly shaking, Ernest mouthed the words thank you before putting the Dragoon spirit into his shirt beneath his robes. It wouldn't fall out of there; it would be safe for when they started running again. Yu seemed hesitant at first about what to do, but he eventually started pulling Ernest into a gentle embrace so he would not see the carnage that lie behind him.

"M'lord…Ernest," he forcefully corrected himself. "We have to leave now. If we don't more people are going to get hurt." The prince nodded slowly. Before the blinding light died off completely they both took off running into what used to the busy streets of Bale. While running Ernest took a good look around and was glad, he hadn't taken part of the feast. The sights in front of him that he saw, very gruesome deaths, the stench of burning human flesh and blood mixed with the smell of smoke was no where near a settling scent for someone's stomach.

It took Ernest all he had to keep running and not to stop so he could be sick. Bale looked completely transformed; the night sky no longer looked like night, rather blood from all the flames from the burning buildings shooting into the sky. The one thing the prince could see in the sky clearly though was the moon that never sets. It too was glowing blood red even more so than the sky. That cursed moon that should have stayed destroyed.

After what seemed a eternity of nothing, but running Ernest and Yu made it out of the city of Bale. Yu turned to the prince and nodded to a path in front of them.

"We should probably go to Hoax from here." Ernest nodded and they both started walking down the long road in front of them. They walked in silence for a good deal of time until finally Ernest stopped dead in his tracks.

"Yu, wait." The guard stopped and turned around giving him a questioningly look. Ernest thought for a moment and then finally said. "Lohan was attacked already and then Bale. That boy is going after each big city one by one. His order will be Lohan, Bale, Hoax's then Selses. So-"

"We should go to Lohan where he's already been," Yu asked.

"Exactly, but we should go to Hoax first to warn them," Ernest said not wanting another town to be unprepared. They agreed on their path and started down the road.

**(X)**

"Something's not right," Gareas said rocking back and forth on the bed. He was in Zero's house in one of the many guest rooms. The room itself was quite nice, Dabas was very rich so Gareas knew he should have expected to see a good-looking house, but this one was even bigger than the one Dabas let him stay at. Not only was it bigger, but a lot more classier. The guest room itself had one window on the left side right above the bed, a big bookshelf on the wall right across from that bed holding so many books he couldn't even begin to count how many there were in it. The floor was actually carpeted and another rug next to the bed, a very high luxury for this day and age.

"Why do you think something's wrong," Zero asked sadly bringing Gareas back to the matter at hand.

"I don't know…it's just this feeling…I…I feel like I should go to Bale or something," he replied honestly.

"Bale," Zero, asked somewhat shocked. "But why?" Both of them had never been ones to like royalty much and had done their best to avoid the city containing their ruling king. It wasn't that they had anything against them per-say, they just didn't like them since most of them were stuck up idiots.

"I don't know why! We should go anyway though," he screamed in a random outburst.

"Wait! Why me?"

"You're the one who said you wanted to go!"

"Oh yeah," Zero laughed causing Gareas to sigh in frustration. Gar stood up and walked in front of the bed wincing as he did for having done the movement so fast. He took in a deep breath and grabbed his inventory bag walking over to the door of the room.

"Are you coming?"

"We're leaving now? Now? SO SOON! What about your wounds," Zero screamed jumping up from the nightstand he'd been sitting on. Gareas grinned at him.

"If anyone touches the angel from my dreams, I'll kill them. I have to save her."

"Why?" Zero asked point blank. It seemed like a lot of trouble to go through for anyone really.

"I'll show you her when we save her! Then you'll understand," he said happily heading out of the room. Zero sighed getting to his feet.

"I think you've lost it, but I'll help anyway," he called out after his friend. He was usually the one having outbursts and jumping into things without thinking and even he thought Gareas should wait a few more days before going on some kind of adventure.

"No one's forcing you to go," Gareas called from down the hall.

"I know that," Zero smiled and walked up behind his friend. "After we save your 'Dream Angel' can we come back to Lohan and fix up Dabas' shop?"

"You bet we can," Gareas said grinning at him. They both walked out of the room and headed down the stairs. Smiling Gareas threw open the door and walked outside into the dark warm night.

"Is there a reason why we're leaving during the night," Zero asked sounding concerned for his friend's sanity. This fact seem to settle into Gareas mind, but he didn't stop.

"Because…my feeling can disappear at any given moment!" Grease yelled. "Have to find her before it does." Zero groaned.

'I was right, he's completely lost it.' Nonetheless, he followed his friend on the start of their long trek.

**(X)**

"Something bad has happened in Bale," Erts said slowly a frown forming on his face as he looked at the flames rising from what used to be Indels Castle. Clay who wasn't to far from him looked up from his star chart pushing his glasses up with his index finger and went into a bit of shock upon seeing the flames.

"My word, I wonder what happened." He stood up and walked over to Erts. "It probably wasn't an accident, if it would have been I don't think that the whole castle would be on fire. They'd of stopped it before then." Erts nodded in agreement. Clay's frown deepened then from the way Erts was acting. For some reason Erts always seemed very concerned with the happenings of the castle, more so than a normal person usually was anyway. Sighing he wrapped his arms around the boy's waist. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

"You really think so," he asked quietly, but Clay could tell his words were getting to the boy and that it was sinking in.

"Of course, the knights there are trained for things like this. I bet you everyone there is completely safe," he grinned at him. It wasn't the complete truth, but the last thing he needed was for Erts to have another one of his panic attacks, because the castle inhabitants may or may not even be hurt. Erts nodded again and try as he might his smile failed going to a frown. Erts smiled slightly then at his failed attempt and kissed Clay on the cheek.

"Thanks for trying," he said somewhat sadly. Clay blushed seeing that his little white lie hadn't worked at all and tightened his embrace around the blonde. They had been courting for the past two years now and if there was one thing Clay knew it was that Erts enjoyed being held close to someone whom he liked being around. As he thought he would, Erts began relaxing more in his arms his head going to Clay's shoulder. The apprentice scholar looked back to the castle watching the flames as they continued to rise into the air while he stroked Ert's arm gently trying to calm him completely. He succeeded at least in getting his boyfriend to sway slightly and his breathing to even out.

He smiled at the sleeping form in his arms and manage to pick him up walking back into their room. He placed the boy on the bed gently and so as not to wake him up and pulled the blanket up around him. It was then that a thought occurred to Clay that sent a complete feeling of dread to go through his body.

'Dart's at Indels castle for the feast being held in Prince Ernest's coming of age ceremony.' He bit his bottom lip frowning deeply. 'This isn't good at all no wonder Erts was worried.

**(X)**

"How much longer," Zero whined four hours later into their long journey. "I swear I don't remember Bale ever being this far away from Lohan!" Gareas raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Zero trying not to throttle the boy into next week.

"Zero, you've never been to Bale," he stated bluntly. Zero was actually silence for a moment as he thought about it and then just shrugged throwing his hands into the air.

"SO! THIS IS BORING," he screamed. Gareas just rolled his eyes at him and turned around to face his destination. It was actually taking a lot longer than he had thought too. For some odd reason it seemed like something was trying to keep them from arriving there. "IS THAT BALE?" Zero asked hopefully when they'd gone another mile or so. Standing in front of them was a completely fortified area that looked more like a war tower than anything else.

"No, that's Hoax." He headed towards the entrance deciding they might as well stay the night there given how long it was taking them. Zero groaned stomping his feet behind him, but followed nonetheless.

"That's not fair," he complained hanging his head. Gareas was a bit surprised at the way Zero was acting really. Zero had traveled around the country of Basil with his father before coming to Lohan to settle down. He shouldn't have been this weak! Unless of course that's why Dart never finished their journey and took him back to Seles. Whether he was too weak though or just getting on Dart's nerves he wasn't to sure of, but thought it may have been a mixture of both.

"Look, we're going to go to Hoax and spend the night there okay? Stop whining," he scolded. Zero's eyes light up immediately and he started doing a small dance and latched onto Gareas' arm.

"THANK YOU!" Zero seemed to decide his dance wasn't enough, took a few steps back and went into a running leap tackling Gareas to the ground completely ignoring the wounds that hadn't healed on the older boy yet. Gareas of course connected face first to the ground groaning loudly as one of his wounds reopened and had dirt shoved into it.

'I hope this kid gets eaten by a dragon on our way there,' Gareas thought smirking a bit. 'I'd pay to see that.' His smirk widened slightly until Zero's elbow came smashing down on the top of his head. He blinked stars falling down in front of him while Zero had gotten up to start jumping around like the idiot he was. He wondered more then a few times why the boy was whining so much about being tired when he had so much energy to spare and dragged himself to his feet walking into the city. If he was lucky maybe the boy wouldn't notice he'd gotten up and would get lost.

**(X)**

Ernest sighed looking around the inn room he was currently in located in the city of Hoax. What had started off as a would be quick visit ended up becoming an overnight stay when the gates closed and the guards refused to open them again until morning. Being denied an exit they had been forced to take up a room within the walls of what now seemed like a war base more than anything else. The whole village was surrounded by brick walls that surrounded the entire village and they had placed guards at every end of it while they had towers and weapons stationed in every direction as if they'd been expecting an attack for years.

Ernest sighed again and walked outside into the cool night air taking in what used to once be a very beautiful city turned war zone. Even with all these things in place, though he doubted that the city could hold its own should the boy Hiead come and stand against them. He doubted that if the Knights of Bale couldn't stop them at all. If his father and one of his most trusted friends couldn't do a thing, these normal people didn't stand a chance.

He began to walk around the brick walkway that led from one guard station to another. Yu had gone to sleep a while ago leaving the prince to his own means of entertainment so sneaking out hadn't been a hard thing to accomplish. Smiling he leaned over the wall that enclosed the walkway and looked out into the vast forest all around him. It seemed odd looking out from this walkway rather than his own room, but there wasn't much he could do about that. From the reports that he wasn't supposed to hear he'd found out his home had almost been completely destroyed and would have to be rebuilt.

"On this quiet night, I'm waiting for you, I've let go of what happened back then, and thus my smile has returned." He closed his eyes allowing the song to leave his lips as his father had sung it to his siblings and himself. The song had always been a source of comfort for him, but now it was more of a way to say goodbye without having to actually say it. "Since then, just a little time has passed, but it seems our memories have already become fonder." The image of a knight coming towards him with a sword out entered his mind, it wasn't the first time he'd seen this. "In the place where the stars fall, I was constantly wishing that you would be smiling, we may be far apart right now, but I know we'll be able to meet again."

He let the words echo and then fade as he stopped resting his head on his folded arms. He wasn't sure what the best move would be now. In all reality, he would become the next king soon once the castle was rebuilt and they had gotten rid of Hiead. He wanted these thoughts to go away quickly and so began the song again.

"Since when has your smile been so fragile and short-lived? It broke under one mistake and gave way. Let only the things that really matter become your light and with that strength, cross over the distant sky." He turned his back to the wall and noticed two people standing in front of the inn. The taller of the two pointed towards it and the shorter one nodded at him running off into it. The taller one shook his head in amusement and followed him. "To the place where the stars fall, I want my feelings to reach you and I'll embrace that coldness that has been at your side for so long. We may be far apart right now, but I know I'll meet you someday." As the words faded this time, Ernest got the odd feeling of the spirit who'd been near him during the ceremony come into his mind. He was about to mutter a curse and then saw that the two boys he'd been watching had ran off too and felt like kicking himself. He'd wanted to get a good look, especially at the taller one considering it may have very well been Hiead. 'What an idiot I am.'

"On a quiet night..' Ernest jerked around instantly hearing the words he'd been singing repeated by someone else. "Hey." The prince looked horribly pale now and was shocked he hadn't jumped out of his skin and over the wall and wondered how this guy had gotten this close to him without him sensing a thing.

"H, hey," he said nervously trying to get a good look at him. He looked him over noting the earrings and green hair and smiled. The person standing in front of him wasn't Hiead and to make things better he was pretty good looking, especially in the outfit he was wearing. 'Okay, he's hot and good looking and he has a bit of style…but attitude does matter,' he told himself a few times in his head and took a quick breath then smiled. "So…"

"You were the one singing the song right? The one King Albert wrote," he asked tilting his head to the side curiously. Ernest felt like the air had been knocked out of him, he'd been going around trying to avoid being known as the prince, but obviously, this person had to have some type of connection to the throne if he knew about the song.

"Umm…yes…I mean…how do you even know about that song," he asked nervously a blush going across his face. He tried his best to hide it then realized it was dark out and the guy wouldn't be able to see it even if he wanted him to.

"Oh umm…just heard it a few times," He muttered looking embarrassed himself. "It's a nice song…and you sing it really well...It was written for the Queen you know," he said off handedly and looked away. Ernest's blush deepened immediately at the compliment. Of course he knew who the song was originally for, but right now all he was thinking about was the rest of the sentence. Even though his father had, had nothing against him singing he'd done his best to hide his talent so as not to attract even more attention to himself of wanting a male partner rather than a female one. "So, what's your name?"

"My name? It's-"

"I'm Gareas,' the boy said cutting him off. He looked so proud Ernest wondered if the guy really did know he was the prince and was having fun with trying to insult him by treating him with such little respect, not that he minded, it was just slightly annoying.

'I think he's hitting on me too,' Ernest thought with slight amusement. 'I wonder if he knows I'm a guy.' Ernest had been mistaken for a female on many occasions to more than a few of his family members' horror. He'd been forced to cut his hair, but even so, he still looked more feminine than half the women in the castle and was still mistaken. "Excuse me, you do know that I-"

"GAREAS!" The boy from early screamed running up the ramp towards the two of them completely ignoring the rule about not waking up sleeping soldiers. He glared at Gareas putting his hands on his hip sighing. "You need to sleep; you need rest so your wounds will heal. Besides, how will you ever find that 'dream angel' of yours if you don't wake up tomorrow morning?"

'Damn he's already taken,' Ernest mentally sighed sitting on the wall. He watched the two exchange glares, which ended up turning into a shout fest. It lasted for about four minutes until Gareas finally managed to calm down to the point of being able to be understood as he screamed.

"Look Zero, I know that already I was just -"

"Stop hitting on the girl you womanizer and let's go to sleep," Zero growled and stomped back to the inn.

"FINE," Gareas shouted at his friend's retreating form. Ernest on the other hand remained where he was near chibi tears as he watched them.

'I knew it.' He put a mask up though and smiled as he'd done so many other times before. "Good luck finding your angel," he said in a fake cheery tone. Gareas turned back to Ernest a frown on his features.

"You know, I was just thinking. What's a beautiful girl like yourself doing traveling alone," he suddenly asked. He was grinning again as the words left his mouth, no doubt one of his best ones. Ernest mentally rolled his eyes at him tempted to take Gareas out with a single punch to the stomach or one in the face. He decided against it though figuring it'd only cause more problems for him and decided to play along with this little game.

"I'm here with my guardian. He's taking me to Lohan in the morning," he said as innocently as he could. 'You really are a womanizer.'

"No way! Zero and I just came from Lohan! What are you going there for if you don't mind my asking?" He suddenly seemed way into it and the prince had to hold back the urge of choking him since he realized the only thing Gareas wanted was to get into his pants. If this had been on Ernest's terms where they'd both known he was male, he wouldn't of minded this at all, but given the circumstances he decided he'd rather play the evil victim and catch the boy in his own game till he was to scared to ever play womanizer again.

"Well you see, we just came from Bale and-"

"That's where we're headed," Gareas screamed in shock. Ernest himself almost went over the edge and fell to the forest below. He managed to keep himself from dying though somehow and stared at Gareas wearily wondering how the person in front of him could have so many mood changes so fast.

"I wouldn't…you see Bale was just attacked. We left due to the fact we were one of the few survivors," he said doing a Mary sue voice and looking down, he even placed his hands in his lap to give it more of a girlish effect.

"No…Damnit," he turned to where Zero had been. "I told you didn't I! Now she may be dead…I may be to late…Damnit!" Ernest looked at him curiosity taking over common sense.

'Oh he's really pushing it. He was going to save another girl and here he is hitting on me.'

"Is something wrong," he asked evilly though his face still sounded innocent. His act was completely blown off though as Gareas grabbed his wrist tightly and pulled him down to his feet then pushed him up against the wall, his face inches from his own. Ernest's eyes instantly widened in fear and he tried to pull away, but the boy's grip was far stronger than his own.

"Tell me right now. Do you know anyone who just had some kind of ceremony to put a sphere into their back?"

'He couldn't be….' Ernest stared at Gareas in utter shock and wished Yu would wake up and come save him. There was no way this guy could be the same spirit that had held on to him during the ceremony and even worse, he thought he was a girl. "Why?"

"You'd think I was nuts if I told you, just tell me! The girl was about your height, same hair color, hair length. I saw some kind of sphere get put into her back by some person with brownish blonde hair in a ponytail. He looked kind of proud or something I don't know, but have you?" Ernest stared at him.

'He doesn't even know what his own king looks like,' he sighed. 'And he is the one who hugged me. Of all the rotten luck I could of ran into,' he mentally muttered. He strengthened the mask and attempted a bigger smile. "Of course I do, that was me," he said honestly. Gareas' eyes shot open and he looked like he'd been hit.

"R, really? Do you remember anything while they were putting the sphere into your back? Being hugged while something tried to comfort you?" Ernest held back the urge to burst into tears at how stupid his supposed knight was.

"Yes. That was you," he asked in his most innocent tone. Gareas nodded quickly. "I guess I didn't have to wait that long then for you to find me." He smiled seductively at him causing Gareas to blush.

"We, well…can I know your name now…?"

'You're the one who interrupted me,' he thought with another sigh thinking of a fake name he could give him. It only took a few seconds though for one to click into his mind. "Kizuna."

"Well then, Kizuna, I here by swear to protect you from here on out. I will be your knight in shining armor," he swore taking Ernest's hand and bowing his head towards it. Ernest watched him more bored than anything wondering if Yu would ever come to save him.

"Well see, I already have one of those," he said in the same bored tone. "My guardian is currently my knight so I really have no need-"

"Yeah well, I can be a real knight for you," he cut in again laughing. Ernest rolled his eyes at him pulling away from his would be knight.

'Wonderful, now I get to pretend to be a peasant woman. I can't believe he's so stupid. He hugs me in the middle of my ceremony in a castle with a king next to me, only royal members have seen coming of ages ceremonies and he thinks I'm a girl and a peasant, wonderful.'

"Thank you."

"Well, I'll see you in the morning then," Ernest said walking away. "Thanks," he muttered as he walked towards the inn. 'Gods Yu is going to murder me. Maybe we can sneak out early and avoid him. So much for my knight in shining armor,' he thought wearily. Couldn't he get any kind of a break?

**TBC**

Okay there, that wasn't so bad. I rewrote the entire chapter with better grammar, or at least that's the plan. Thanks for reading.


	4. The protective knight

This story will be a Yaoi.

Yaoi means GUY with GUY!

Yuri means GIRL with GIRL!

And

Straight means GUY with GIRL! Or GIRL with GUY!

You have been Warned ! Now that we're all on the same wavelength here, let's start the story!

1) For thoughts 'insert thoughts'

2) Mind speech will be in italics

Disclaimer: I own not a thing, but when the time comes, I'll own my original characters. But, they aren't here yet.

Ch,4: The Protective Knight

'My knight in shining armor my ass. More like annoying knight of the month,' Ernest thought to himself with a sigh. Gareas would not stop giong on about how he would protect Ernest no matter what the cost. The day had not started off as well as Ernest would hoped it would. The minute Yu had woken Ernest up to eat something quickly and then have them leave Gareas had joined them along with his younger companion Zero. Yu had not warmed up to either of them at all and was horrified when Gareas not only started hitting on Ernest again, but called him Kizuna and a girl. Ernest had to quickly pull him aside and tell him to play along for now. Zero had kept calling Gareas a womanizer all morning and Ernest was beginning to see that was just what Gareas was. Sadly as much as Ernest hated himself for it, he was really enjoying Gareas's company and didn't want the guy to walk off just yet. At times while they were walking to Lohan Ernest even found himself thinking of giving up the throne and staying with Gareas forever. That wouldn't be to far fetched either. Before it'd of been impossible to think. Seeing as how the castle had been destroyed and his father killed however, his wish of being with the man of his dreams just might come true...If he could possibly put up with Gareas for that long a time.

"And that's how I won the worlds strongest contest." Gareas said proudly. Ernest turned back to look at Gareas frowning a bit.

"Umm…Wonderful. I'm sorry I didn't hear a word you said." Gareas stared at the prince and frowned.

"Sorry…I did-" Ernest cut him off.

"It's not you. I'm just deep in thought at the moment."

"Yeah," Zero cut in. "Her village was just destroyed y'know." Gareas nodded and a low growl could be heard from Yu. Yu was not happy at all about Ernest's pretending to be a girl. Nor was he when the fact that Ernest was into guys rather than girls slammed into his face. He was even madder that he'd just found out that morning rather then a long time ago when he could of put that information to better use. Sighing Ernest forced a smile at Gareas and tried to start a nice conversation that wouldn't end with "as beautiful as your face" or Ernest spacing out and ignoring the whole thing all together.

"So Gareas, how long have you known Zero?" Zero looked up at his name being said and Gareas blinked a bit seeming to be caught off guard at being asked about Zero.

"Umm…well….-"

"Two years, but I just moved to his village a few months ago." Zero cut in. Ernest snickered at this realizing that Zero loved cutting people off and getting his say in the matter not caring a thing about what that matter was.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Gareas said after a few seconds of silence.

"It IS right." Zero said rolling his eyes and looking out at the path his hands behind his head. "Why is this trip taking longer than when we were walking from Lohan to Hoax?"

"Because you're stupider than you were yesterday." Gareas said glaring at him. Truth was, neither of them had really stopped fighting sense they woke up. Another thing Ernest found amusing, but wouldn't let them know it. Not easily anyway.

"Are you to fighting over me?" Ernest asking pretending to giggle. Gareas blushed and zero rolled his eyes again.

"Sorry, but you're way too old for me." Zero said never taking his eyes off the path in front of him. Gareas on the other hand was now blushing badly and had wrapped his arm around Ernest's waist.

"No matter who fights for you, I shall always be your protector!" He said smiling. Ernest forced himself not to burst out laughing or to knee Gareas in the stomach and kept on walking. Yu on the other hand had other plans. Growling he punched Gareas in the face causing the would be knight to have to let go of Ernest and take a couple of steps back. "What the hell was that for?" Gareas demanded from Yu. Yu smirked and kept on walking. Ernest snickered a bit and turned from Yu back to him.

"You'll have to forgive Yu. He's not used to guys following me around." 'Well, that is true,' Ernest thought while mentally laughing. 'Girls maybe, but never any guys.'

"I don't see why not. You're beautiful! Any guy to not think that is nuts!" Ernest blushed a bit at the compliment.

"Thank you." Truth be told, Ernest was enjoying all this attention from Gareas. Sooner or later he knew he'd have to tell Gar that he wasn't a female ,but in fact a male. But, until that time, Ernest could have his own fun. A loud groan snapped Ernest out of his thoughts and he looked up to see Zero staring at a sign.

"How did we manage this?" Zero demanded glaring at Gareas. Gareas just shrugged and sighed.

"I have no idea. I could of swore we were heading towards Lohan!" Ernest frowned. If they weren't near hoax or Lohan, just where were they?

"I can't believe we're in Seles!" Ernest's eyes widen at hearing the name of the village.

(Flash)

"Arthur? Why have we stopped?" Albert asked in concern to the driving. He got no reply though and frowned a bit looking at his wife in the carriage. There seemed to be a bit of commotion going on outside and he wanted to know what it was. "Stay here." He got out of the horse carriage and went to the nearest knight he saw. "What's going on?"

"Get to the side M'lord! We'll save your family!" Smoke started to fill the carriage. Causing his mother to leave. The fire spooking the horses ran into the other carriage slamming into it and caused it to turn over.

Ernest, Erts, and Kizuna all hit the floor of their own carriage, the glass stars they'd been playing with smashing into bits. He frowned and Kizuna latched onto Ernest's arm while Erts's hand darted out and grabbed Ernest's. Ernest squeezed it slightly letting there thoughts mix and tried to convince each other it'd be okay. Ernest however knew he was going to have to exit the carriage and try to help the others.

"What is the meaning of this?" Albert demanded from the men. Emille was standing near Albert near tears, she kept looking at the carriage that had the three children in it.

"You know what we want Albert!" A man from the group screamed out at him. She whispered something into his ear and he frowned shaking his head.

Ernest frowned looking to Erts and noticing that he had begun to shake badly because he was so scared. Ernest turned to look at Kizuna who looked just about as scared as Erts and his frowned deepened. He pulled his hand away from Erts gently.

"I'll be right back, okay?" Ernest told his brother soothingly. Erts nodded fear still clearly written in his eyes. He had them hide under the seats in the carriage then climbed out so he could see what was going on. Ernest looked around trying to get an idea of what was going on, he didn't like the looks of it.

"And if we disagree with that trade?" The man laughed loudly causing Ernest to wince. The man's laugh was loud and hurt his ears.

"We kill all of you." Something in Ernest kept telling him to turn around and finally after a few momen

(flash)

Ernest looked up at Gareas slowly coming out of his flash back. Why did they have to end up here of all places? He'd just lost his home and his father, had no idea where the rest of his family was and now he was at the place where his brother had been taken from him.

"Yes?" He finally asked when he'd managed to get some of his emotions under control. Some of the memories had not been his own, but his father's. In an attempt to understand the situation better Ernest had once taken his father's hand and read those specific memories, but none of them had helped.

Gareas frowned holding his hand down to Ernest.

"Are you okay?" Ernest took note that he was now on the ground and stood up with Gareas's help.

"Yes…thank you..." he said shakily. He hadn't even realized he'd fallen over, at least he wasn't on the wall in Hoax.

Gar nodded and pointed to the village.

"It's getting near dinner time and besides I don't think you're in any shape to travel right now. We might as well stay in Seles for the night." Nodding slowly Ernest followed them into the village.

(X)

"Would you look at that. Outsides are actually coming into the village." Clay said pushing his glasses up with his index finger. "Very interesting." Erts looked over to Clay who was standing on the balcony of the house again watching the people. Erts had been on the bed reading when Clay had started talking.

"Think it has anything to do with…the castle burning down?" Erts asked a bit curiously. Clay thought for a moment then nodded.

"Actually Erts, that might be very well what it's about. Even though the royal family could go to Fletz during this time, Dart may, being friends with the King and all, brought back the royal family for hiding here. It's all very interesting."

(X)

Erts smiled a bit. As much as he'd love to see how Kizuna and Ernest were doing, he knew Dart wouldn't do that. After the attack on the carriage Dart had found Erts wondering around Seles and had recognized him instantly. By that time however Erts had acquired an actually friend, Clay. He hadn't wanted to go to Fletz, which his father had warned him a month prior to that day once they had returned to the castle, if his Aunt Lisa hadn't married he would sent to his mother's home kingdom. There he would be raised to be the ruler of Fletz to take over for Lisa unless an heir was born. Dart had understood Erts wanting to stay with Clay instead of being forced into going to Fletz and had agreed to let him stay in the village without telling his parents. Over time Clay and Erts friendship had grown until they had become lovers. Erts refused to give any of that up. He wanted to stay in Seles with Clay and lives his life out happily instead of hiding from everyone with Ernest like he used to or worse, being separated and forced to live across the ocean with his Grandfather and Aunt.

"Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough," Erts said with a small shrug. Clay nodded not even turning around to look at Erts.

"Yes, I guess we will."

(X)

Ernest was grateful that no body as of yet had recognized him as the prince of Basil. So far he had lucked out completely and was very happy for that fact too. It'd take a lot of explaining to Gareas and Zero both if someone off the street just started screaming out "LOOK THE PRINCE IS HERE!" blowing both his cover of pretending to be a girl and a peasant. They checked in at the Inn so Ernest could rest. Zero wanted to check Seles's out while Gareas wanted nothing more than to stay by Ernest's side and make sure he "got better". Hence, Yu and Zero ended up going to visit all of Zero's old friends sense this was Zero's hometown. Unlucky for them his father was out of town and he couldn't get into his house.

"If you need anything, anything at all, just ask me alright?" Gareas said for about the fiftieth time to Ernest. Ernest nodded.

"Yes, I know. Thank you very much for caring." Ernest wanted to tackle him and tell him to shut up. He knew! He knew if he needed anything that Gareas would do it for him no matter what it was. Strangely enough, Ernest really wanted nothing more than for Gareas to lie down next to him in bed and hold him while he slept. That wouldn't go to well though, unless of course he kept Gareas to his back. That could work and at the moment he was actually considering to risk it. "Gar?" Gareas looked up at Ernest quickly.

"Yes, Kizuna?" Ernest smiled a bit.

"Would you lie down with me?" He asked doing his best puppy dog look. This would probably be the one and only time he'd get something like this out of Gareas, he might as well abuse it.

"L, lie down with y, you?" Gareas repeated blushing.

"I don't mean make love…just…lie down next to me…" It was the prince's turn to blush at the realization of what he'd just asked Gareas, just about a complete stranger to do. He'd only known Gareas one day and he was already feeling comfort from his presence.

"Sure…I guess I could…" Ernest nodded and rolled onto his side so his back was facing Gareas when he lied down in the bed next to him. As if reading his thoughts Gareas then wrapped his arms around Ernest pulling him close. Ernest sighed a bit closing his eyes.

"Just like in the hall…" Ernest said happily. He'd feared he'd never get to have this feeling ever again, even if it would be short lived.

"Yeah, except this time, I don't have to go," Gareas said. Ernest smiled now feeling very tired.

"Good….oh and if you try to get on me in my sleep." Ernest let out a small yawn. "I'll kill you." Gareas smiled nervously and nodded to him.

"I promise to be on my best behavior."

(X)

"And this is my friend Jil and Lowe!" Zero said pointing to a twelve year old girl with brown hair in pig tails in a brown and blue peasant dress. The boy, who also had brown hair, purple shorts and a light blue shirt was probably around nine or ten. Yu sighed.

"Can we go back to the Inn now?" Yu asked.

Zero glared at him.

"No. No one made you come y'know? I used to live here, I won't get lost." Yu seemed to think about that, nodded and started walking away. "HEY!" Yu turned around to see Zero running after him and gave him a questioning look. Zero glared at him more. "I didn't mean that! I mean I won't get lost, but I don't want to be out here alone!" The knight ignored him and started walking off. Again. "YU!" Zero ran after him after saying quick goodbyes to his friends. He caught up to him a few minutes later breathing hard. "You could of waited!"

"Why? You said it yourself, you won't get lost." Zero growled loudly.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Yu shrugged again and kept on walking. Sighing zero followed.

"You really suck, y'know that?" Yu kept on walking and Zero sighed watching him go.

"Zero! Wait up!" Zero stopped sighing and turned around just in time for his eyes to widen and get slammed into head first by Clay. They both hit the ground hard groaning.

"CLAY! WATCH IT!" Zero held his head wincing. Clay blushed and got to his feet quickly helping Zero up.

"Sorry about that." He said brushing the dust off his clothes. "But Erts and I wanted to know why the prince was with you, and if something's wrong." Somehow this knocked out the fact that Clay had just rammed into him and Zero nodded.

"The prince? What are you guys talking about?" Clay frowned at Zero pushing his glasses up with his index finger.

"The prince. The boy who's with you and the other two guys." Zero looked at him awkwardly.

"Prince? That's not the prince. That's some girl named Kizuna that Gareas wants to protect."

"Kizuna? But that's the princesses name." Erts said frowning as he walked up behind Clay. Clay nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. There's Prince Ernest and Princess Kizuna," Clay said folding his arms across his chest. "But Princess Kizuna is only about ten years old," Clay added on.

"Are you telling me, that the person Gareas's is hitting on, is a guy?" Zero asked just to make sure he was hearing things right.

"Yeah, if that's really the prince…." Clay started, but Zero had fallen over holding his stomach laughing uncontrollably. Yu seemed to have actually be waiting for Zero, because he was now standing in front of the boy looking down at him.

(X)

Erts had to force himself to stay put and before he knew what he was doing he walked over to Yu.

"My brother. What's wrong with him?" Yu turned to Erts and his eyes widened when he noticed who it was.

"Erts?"Yu asked and Erts nodded slowly.

"Yes…" The young prince said looking away. He had never wanted to run into anyone connected with the royal family again, but something had happened, his brother may need his help.

Clay frowned pushing his glasses up again.

"You know Erts?" The apprentice scholar asked. Yu gave a small nod. By this time Zero had gotten to his feet using Erts to balance himself out.

"So, So Kizuna is r, really…" He doubled over in laughter again. Clay rolled his eyes and turned back to Yu and Erts. Yu seemed annoyed with all the noise, because he frowned and grabbed Zero by the top of his shirt. Zero stopped laughing instantly and glared at him.

"You are not to tell Gareas any of this," Yu ordered him.

Zero's glare became more intense.

"He has a right to know!" Zero protested.

Yu gave another quick nod.

"Yes, but not from you. Prince Ernest will tell him in due time." Zero glared at him more, but in the end, ending up sighing and giving up. He knew Yu could beat him up easily and didn't feel like getting into a fight.

"Can I go see him?" Erts asked quietly. He didn't actually think he had the right, but if his brother was pretending to be his littler sister then something must definitely be wrong.

Yu nodded and dropped Zero onto the ground.

"Hey!"

"Yes. Please follow me." Erts nodded and started to follow Yu, but Clay grabbed him by his wrist causing Erts to stop and look at him questioningly.

"Erts…how do you know the prince? And this guy?" Clay asked in a low whisper. Erts frowned and kissed Clay on the cheek.

"Ernest is my brother. And Yu used to protect both Ernest and me." With that Erts pulled his wrist away and ran off after Yu. Clay stood there in silence as all his brain registered what he'd just said. All the reasons behind Erts being so worried about the royal family and the castle now made so much sense. Everything was now quite clear to Clay.

"Are you gonna get off of me?" Zero asked loudly causing Clay to jump and notice he was stepping on Zero.

"Sorry. It's just that….Erts being a prince…..it's all quite interesting, and I'm a bit shocked that he didn't tell me.." Zero got up dusting his clothes off again and shrugged rolling his eyes.

"You think everything is "quite interesting." Maybe he didn't want anyone to know. Did you ever think of that?" Zero asked him. Clay glared at him for using his own personal phrase against him and stomped off in the direction Erts went.

(X)

Erts ran into the room and stopped blushing seeing Ernest asleep and a strange boy holding him. 'Oops,' Erts thought wanting to run out of the room now, but his brother had seem to feel him walk in and opened his eyes to see who had come into the room. The older prince's eyes widen when he saw who it was standing near the bed. "Erts!" He just about screamed out and pulled out of Gareas's embrace to hug the boy.

(X)

"You're okay."

Ernest nodded smiling at his younger brother. So many thoughts were going through his head right now. Why Erts was here, and where had he been. He was glad that Erts was okay to say the least, but there was a lot of explaining to be done.

"I'm glad…you're fine..." Ernest said and hugged him closer. In fact he didn't let his brother go until he heard Gareas from behind him clear his throat. Ernest turned to face Gareas blushing and let go of Erts.

"Gareas…this isn't what you think it is," Ernest attempted.

Gareas glared at him folding his arms across his chest.

"And just what do you think I think this is?" He asked coldly. Like Ernest really had to take a guess at what was currently going through his supposed protector's mind. It was so obvious it was painful and yet Gareas was the womanizer here, not him.

"You think I'm courting this young boy, Erts, but I'll tell you right now I'm not so stop pouting! Erts is my younger brother," He growled at him. He was not about to have his brother taken from him again, just let his "knight" try and do something, but at his words Gareas's eyes lit up and his arms fell to his sides.

"Brother? You never told me you had a brother!"

'Only because you barely listen to me half the time Gar,' Ernest thought rolling his eyes. Erts was laughing now tears streaming down his face.

_I missed you. Is Kizuna okay?_

_I don't know….the castle went up in flames. Yu said everyone was safe, but father…everything's just…-_

_Shh. It's okay big brother. I understand it all, already._

Ernest nodded thankful that his brother had the same telepathic ability as his own. Without it he wasn't sure if he could ever explain to anyone what had happened. It was so much easier just showing the person his thoughts.

(X)

Gareas feeling left out got off the bed and was about to hug both Erts and Ernest when Yu walked in followed by Clay and Zero. Zero of course was running and slammed head first into Gareas sending them both back onto the bed.

"ZERO!"

"Sorry!" Zero yelled out blushing and getting off of Gareas. Everyone in the room had turned to look at the two. Everyone seemed to be in a bit of shock for this little reason and all of a sudden Ernest fell to the ground passed out.

"Brother!"

"Kizuna!"

Darkness.

Ernest sat up slowly holding his head. It hurt badly and he wasn't sure where he was. Frowning he looked around and couldn't see anything. It was all black, soon enough though the darkness gave way to a peaceful scene where Ernest was lying in the grass on his back snuggled up next to Gareas. They were near the boarder of a forest, right before the trees started lying in the shade.

"I love you." Gareas said kissing him on the cheek before closing his eyes and resting again. Ernest smiled nuzzling him a bit and pulling himself closer.

"I love you to."

(tbc)


	5. Forbidden Love

This story will be a Yaoi.

Yaoi means **GUY** with **GUY!**

Yuri means GIRL with **GIRL!**

And

Straight means GUY with GIRL! Or GIRL with GUY!

You have been Warned ! Now that we're all on the same wavelength here, let's start the story!

1) For thoughts 'insert thoughts'

2) Mind speech is written in italics

Disclaimer: I own not a thing, but when the time comes, I'll own my original characters. But, they aren't here yet.

Ch, 5: Forbidden Love

"Brother? What do you mean brother?" Gareas demanded from Erts. Erts glared up at him trying to pull Ernest back onto the bed.

"Don't just stand there! Help me, please!" Gareas nodded and helped Erts pick Ernest up and lie him down on the bed.

"Get him a rag!" Gareas demanded of Zero. Zero nodded quickly and ran out of the room to go get a cold rag to put on Ernest's forehead. Yu frowned and pushed Gareas out of the way.

"I knew this was a bad idea. I should of never let the prince play along with this."

"Prince?" Gareas's shouted in pure shock.

"Yes the prince!" Yu said death glaring Gareas and taking the rag from Zero when he returned and placing it on Ernest's forehead.

"Prince? Brother? What the hell?" Gareas demanded.

Erts frowned looking up from his brother to Gareas. He decided things needed to be settled right now, if not for everyone else, then his brother. He walked over to Gareas his eyes firmly locking the teen's own.

"Tell me right now Gareas. Do you love my brother?"

"Wh, what?"

"Do you love him?" The younger prince repeated. If he didn't there was no point in him driving his brother insane.

"….Well…I really-"

"If your feelings go only as far as liking. I want you to stay away from him."

"You are not in charge of what goes on," Gareas growled.

Erts sighed closing his eyes and straightened his posture. When he stood completely straight he was only about head shorter than Gar.

"I am Ernest's brother, Erts. Therefore I DO have a say in what you do and say. And one of the top things on my list, is to make sure you don't hurt my brother." Gareas stared at him eyes wide. Yu was of course standing besides Ernest, but glaring at Gareas as Erts talked.

Without another word Gareas walked out of the room Ernest was in and out into the hallway.

(X)

"Gar!" Zero ran after him down the hall. "GAR!" Gareas ignored him and walked outside. Zero quickly followed.

(X)

"Brother…." Erts frowned staring down at his brothers pale face. 'He's in shock. I don't know why…,but he's in a state of shock.' Clay sensing his boyfriends uneasiness walked over to him and wrapped his arms around him.

"It'll be okay. Your brother's going to be fine." Erts nodded leaning into Clay's touch. Yu looked up at Erts and Clay then frowning. Erts blushed and looked away from Yu's eyes. 'I don't want to face him right now. I just want brother to be okay…'

(X)

"It's a shame…" Gareas said slowly sitting up and pulling away from Ernest.

"Hmm?" Ernest asked turning around to look at him. Gareas got to his feet and dusted his pants off . Ernest slowly got to his feet as well. "What's a shame Gar?"

"That I can't stand you." Ernest's eyes widen at this.

"Wh, what?"

"You heard me." Gareas said smirking and folding his arms across his chest. "I can't stand you. I just wanted to see if I could actually make the prince of Bale fall as low as to proclaim his love to a commoner. I have no intentions of actually staying with you. You Ernest, make me sick. You're nothing, but a spoiled brat." Ernest took a small step back frowning.

"No….Gare-"

"Don't." Gareas said cutting him off. "You have no right to say my name!"

(X)

Ernest sat up sweating badly and looked around his room. His stomach did a small flip and he wrapped his arms around his legs seeing that his nightmare had come true. Gareas wasn't there anymore, and from the feelings he was getting from the air within the room he wasn't coming back, ever. Ernest let out a controlled breath and rested his head down on his knees. He'd do anything to feel Gareas's strong arms wrap around him again, but Ernest knew that wouldn't happen now. It wouldn't ever happen.

"Are you okay?" Ernest jumped at the voice and saw Yu sitting there in a chair. 'No…the voice it's not right…that's not Yu.' "Gar…gets out of hand a lot of the time." 'Zero…'

"Don't apologize for him. I was the one that was wrong. I should of told him…and now. I'll never be able to…" He closed his eyes tightly. It'd just been a game from the start right? All he had been doing was trying to teach Gareas a lesson for treating women like they were pieces of glass, but he'd fallen for the fool even so. 'Who am I kidding, I'm the fool.'

"I'll go talk to him." Zero said standing up. Ernest took note that Zero seemed a lot more mature than usual and was talking in a low calm voice instead of his normal loud and excited one. "If I don't come back…Gar wouldn't give in."

Ernest nodded slowly and Zero walked out of the room closing the door behind him. 'What's the point of waiting? I already know Gareas's answer.' Just as Ernest was climbing out of the bed Yu walked in.

"Are you alright my lord?" Yu asked worry for once clearly in his voice. Ernest smiled a bit at that looking at his real knight.

"Can we leave? Please? I already know Gareas's answer…I'd rather not stick around to not have anyone come back. You were completely right Yu, I'm sorry I put you through all that today, I was just having so much fun playing my game...but I have no right. We need to go on, let Gareas and Zero go back to their lives." Yu shrugged and motioned to the door..

"At once my lord. Would you like me to inform Prince Erts?" Yu asked.

Ernest thought for a moment trying to decide if that'd be a good idea or not. After a few minutes of running over the idea in his head he nodded.

"Yes….I'd like to talk to him at least one more time before leaving." Yu nodded and walked out of the room. Ernest this time actually being alone felt like crying. Alone and he felt awful, but he knew that Gareas would have found out sooner or later. Not to mention that Ernest had, had no right to play that trick on him anyway. 'It was a nice day though…I'm glad…that I had at small bit of happiness…at least for awhile.' Deciding now was as good as time as any he headed for the door of his room. He met with Erts in the hallway just as he was going to walk down the staircase.

"Ernest! I'm sorry! I didn't think he'd actuall-" Erts started, but Ernest shook his head.

"It's alright." Ernest said cutting him off and smiling. "If you think about it, I really had no right to lead him on like that. It's my fault and I will take my punishment as I should." Erts frowned at this hugging his brother tightly.

"Ernest…"

"It's fine...Yu and I are leaving now so don't worry. I promise not to tell anyone I ran into you...when Kizuna's older and can keep a secret, I'll let her know. She misses you a lot."

"Leaving?" Erts asked looking like Ernest had hith im.

"Yes…" Ernest pulled out of the hug slightly so he could look down at Erts. "Yu and I are going to Fletz…we have to explain to the people there what happened, and what's going on. There's a good chance that another war is starting, Ernest explained. Erts swallowed hard and nodded slightly.

"Ernest…do you think…it'd be okay, if Clay and I went with you? We've been spending a lot of time with Dart lately…,but if he's dead…" Erts voice trailed off and Ernest started down at him. The last thing he'd expected his brother to ask was if he could go with.

"Of course. You're my little brother no matter what. You can follow me to wherever you want, but I thought you were hiding from your family?" Ernest asked him. He still didn't quite understand why Erts had never returned to the castle and if Dart had known, but never told them, than his brother must be hiding.

"I am," Erts said with a smile. "I don't think the kingdom can really afford that right now though." With that he ran off down the stairs. Ernest followed him and they both met with Yu outside of the Inn who quickly agreed to Erts and Clay accompanying them.

"You will explain why you didn't come home right?" Ernest asked his little brother hopefully. "I can tell you anything you want in return...it'll be awhile before we make it to Fletz."

"Of course."

(X)

"You idiot! You loved being around Ernest! What does it matter if he's a boy or a girl? You really liked him!" Zero screamed at his green haired idiot friend who was currently walking out of Seles' and heading down the road back to Lohan.

"Because! He lied to me! And I'm not gay!"

"But you were happy! Don't think of it as being gay, think of it as being in love!"

"Just shut up Zero!"

"Gar…" Zero frowned watching his companion walk off leaving behind what may have been his one chance at happiness. Gareas had been nothing but depressed ever sense his girlfriend - soon to be wife- Leena Fujimura had died the year before. He of course, always acted happy, but Zero could tell through the guy's mask since they'd been friends for so long. A thought ran through Zero's head and almost made him cringe in disgust. ,but it made perfect sense. "Oh. I get it now Gareas." Gareas stopped and turned to Zero. He'd never heard that kind of a tone from Zero before.

"Get what?" Zero glared at him his voice going cold.

"You never wanted to be with Ernest! You wanted a girl to take Leena's place! And sense Ernest looks a lot like Leena, if he'd of just been a girl, it'd been the perfect replacement! Well get your head out of the clouds! Leena is dead and you just hurt the prince of Bale for it! Go back to Lohan! I hate people like you!" Zero ran off tears streaming down his face back towards the Seles' inn.

(X)

Gareas' eyes widen as he watched Zero run back into the village. 'Is that what I'm really doing?' Gareas asked himself frowning as Zero tripped, got right back up and kept running. 'Was I really trying to replace Ernest…with Leena?'

(X)

Just as Ernest and company were walking out of the inn Zero nearly slammed right into Erts, but Yu who was always good at watching over the princes grabbed Zero at the last second and threw him to the side. Zero groaned rubbing his head as he sat on the ground.

"Is this a habit of yours now Zero?" Erts asked staring down at his friend. Yu glared at Zero and left him on the ground.

"Thanks." Zero said sarcastically getting to his feet. Yu smirked at him saying nothing.

"What's wrong Zero?" Erts asked worriedly.

"I want to go with you guys," Zero said with a grin as he put his arms behind his head.

"What? Why?" Clay asked.

"Well…Gareas is being an asshole. Besides, I've known you two for years…and I've heard a lot about Ernest and Yu for awhile now from my dad... I want to go with you guys! I want to see the sights and go on the adventure!" Zero shouted dramatically.

"We're just going to Fletz," Ernest said, but that only made the boy's eyes light up and he got to his knees begging.

"I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO GO TO FLETZ! THAT PLACE IS SUPPOSED TO ROCK!" Everyone took a small step back then at Zero's outburst. Zero paid them no mind though just stared and waited.

Ernest smiled a bit and shrugged. What could he really do? The boy seemed so desperate he'd probably just follow them anyway and everyone knew it was safer to travel in groups rather than alone.

"I take it Gareas isn't coming then," Ernest said knowing well enough that he'd probably never see the man again.

"What about him?" Zero asked sounding annoyed.

"I mean, you can't just let him travel on his own," Ernest said. Even if he and Gareas were not on good terms he didn't want the guy to end up dead.

"Yes I can. Gar can take care of himself. I want to see the rest of the world. The only way I'm going to be able to do that, is if I go with you guys." Clay and Erts both sighed and looked up to Ernest. Ernest gave them another shrug, he couldn't see any way around it, denying someone something without a real reason was just not something Ernest liked to do.

"Alright. Come with us, but if anything happens to Gareas I'm going to hold it on you."

"Hey! Why me?" Zero demanded getting into Ernest's face as best he could being a lot shorter than Ernest. "It's Gareas fault for being a jerk, not mine! If he gets eaten by a monster than it's his fault for being mean! Not mine!" Zero screamed. Ernest rolled his eyes folding his arms across his chest.

"I still have feelings for Gareas, even if he hates me. If he dies…I would never forgive myself knowing it'd be my fault. And I'd never forgive you, because you could of went with him!" Ernest hit Zero aside the head and started walking. Erts started laughed at this and followed after him. Yu smirked at Zero seeing that the boy was finally going to be put in place and walked after the two princes. Clay sighed shaking his head at his low intelligent friend.

"You shouldn't make the prince mad." Clay said pushing his glasses up. "It would seem as though Prince Ernest has a bit of a split personality."

"More like a hidden urge to murder is more like it!" Zero said rubbing his head where a huge bump had appeared. Clay looked at it curiously.

"Interesting. The prince seems to have used some sort of round weapon to strike you against the head." Zero glared at him.

"Will everyone stop taking his side! He hit me after I stood up to him! He shouldn't hit me in the head!" Clay shrugged.

"Next time don't go talking bad about the person he wants to be with." Zero growled looking up and started after the others walking down the road. "Though I do agree Zero." Zero looked up at his friend.

"Really?" Clay nodded.

"Yeah. You really don't need to get hit in the head. You have enough brain damage as it is."

Zero's eyes widen with anger and he death glared Clay.

"WHAT?"

Clay laughed and started running down the path after the group.

"Hey! Don't throw rocks at me!" Clay screamed as Zero picked up rocks and threw them at him.

"I'll hit your head! Get back here!" Zero yelled running after him. All of a sudden someone grabbed Zero's arm jerking him to a sudden stop. Zero glared up at the figure that had grabbed him.

"Hey! What's the big idea!" He demanded until he noticed who it was that was holding him.

"Where are they going?"

"Why should I tell you? I thought you wanted to go live in fantasies and be with dead people," Zero spat.

Gareas's eyes flashed dangerously and he threw Zero onto the ground.

"I've had enough of your crap Zero. I know that if that's what I was doing it was wrong, but I'll never know unless I stick around and figure out my real feelings for him. So I'm going with whether you like it or not." Zero groaned getting to his feet.

"What a great trip this is going to be. I'll have you throwing me onto the ground and the prince hitting me aside the head! Why don't you people kill me already?"

"What's taking so long?" Yu demanded walking back over to where Zero and Gareas's were at. At seeing Gareas's his face transformed from emotionless to one of anger. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be going back to Lohan."

Gareas glared at him.

"I can do anything I want." He said folding his arms across his chest. "I want to figure out if I really maybe do love the prince. Got a problem with that?"

"Yu, why is ever- Gareas?" Ernest was not sure what to say. He hadn't expected to see Gareas ever again, at least not any time soon. He felt like glaring, but what good would that do? He was the prince, he shouldn't have played the game rather treated his commoner subject with some respect as he did with all the other people he spoke with.

"Look…I'm sorry okay? I just…-" Gareas started, but Ernest interupptd him.

"Don't bother. I understand. We're both guys, it's not right," the prince said with a quick laugh. "You have my deepest apologies for dragging the masquerade on for so long, but I needed someone to talk to." This was the only way Ernest knew how to cope with this, revert back to talking to Gareas formally and acting as the situation really was, Gareas was nothing, but a common born womanizer and he was a royally born prince.

Gareas shook his head quickly.

"No. I…I can't explain it. Not now…not yet. I want to figure some things out…and once I do. I'll be able to give you an answer okay?"

Ernest nodded slowly hearing these words. 'A second chance?' Ernest thought to himself seeing Gareas walk over to him and wrap his arm around his waist. Instinctively Ernest leaned in to his touch and instead of pushing him away, Gareas moved his head over so Ernest could rest his head on his shoulder, which he did. They both walked off down the path that way after Clay and Erts. Gareas seemed to completely ignore Ernest's formal act, but that was alright, how could he possibly pass up a second chance with being with Gareas with no lies between them?

(X)

Yu shook his head.

"If your friend hurts him again, I will see to his death." Yu warned Zero walking off after the princes. At the moment he was wishing for Gareas' death for having hurt Ernest, but if the fool died now then Ernest would be hurting again.

Zero sighed throwing his hands up into the air.

"Why am I always the last one? Even when I'm the first, I end up being last!" Zero screamed out running after them.

The rest of the night went pretty uneventful. They made it to Fletz two mornings later. Gareas and Ernest and seemed to have drifted apart somewhat. Ernest was currently walking next to Yu and Erts trying to stay awake. Clay was next to Erts and then Zero leaving Gareas's being as far away from Ernest as he could be. Ernest had given up trying to figure out why Gareas had pulled away from him and had made sure everyone else was in between them. As they walked into the city of Fletz Ernest's energy had somehow returned. He remembered coming here when he was younger and all the good times he had, had. His whole family had been taught about astronomy and how to read the stars. Fletz was the city of the stars after all.

The whole city was made out of white brick with every house containing blue roof tops. There were two sides to the two with a small river running down the middle of it, one bridge set across the river in the middle of the city. On each side there were town shops and other such things as that. At the very end where both sides seemed to meet up, and the river went underground, laid the castle.

The castle was huge and also made all out of white brick also with a blue roof. The main base of the castle was large and square with two huge towers sitting on each side of the base. Both of these towers were used for astronomy.

"I always loved this place." Erts said leaning on Clay causing Clay to smile in return.

"Fletz no doubt has a lot of smart scholars here. I bet they could read anyone's future from the stars without a second thought. Being able to do that is so interesting," Clay said making Erts giggle. Zero suddenly popped up behind them and grabbed both of there shoulders jumping up.

"You bet it is! We need to go find the guy in charge of reading the stars and have him tell us where we're going! Then we can head to our next adventure!" Both Erts and Clay looked at Zero like he was nuts.

"Didn't you listen? We're just telling the kingdom that the king was murdered-"

"Murdered?" Everyone jumped turning around and looking to the man that had spoken.

"YOU!" Ernest said death glaring Hiead. "What are you doing here?" Hiead smirked staring at all of them.

"Getting quit a group there. I doubt you'll be welcome here. Heh. May want to take cover." Hiead started walking off and before anyone could do anything, Erts, Zero, and Clay grabbed Gareas while Yu was holding back Ernest from going after him.

(X)

Hiead cursed himself for walking over to them. For some reason, he'd been drawn towards there group, but he wasn't sure why. Something had just made him go over there, and want to bother them a bit. He knew that he'd be seeing them a lot, he'd already has his stars read, and of course, the reader had not been to happy with what he found out. 'Though he won't have to worry much about that anymore anyway.' Hiead thought smirking the image of the man lying in his own pool of blood flashing in his mind.

(X)

Zero sighed walking with them. He'd really wanted to go after Hiead, but of course, he had, had to hold Gareas back. Following Erts and Ernest they went to a house that had a huge Telescope sticking out of the roof.

"This is Fester's house." Ernest said smiling and knocking on the door. "He is by far, one of the best astrologers I've ever met." Erts nodded in agreement.

"Yes, he predicted a lot of things," the younger prince agreed.

"If father would have listened, than you'd of never ran off. , But then you'd of never found Clay…so I guess I'm glad he didn't."

"I get what you mean," Erts said laughing slightly.

"Yeah…" Clay smiled holding Erts close. There was some noise from inside the house and a man in a long gray robe with gray hair opened it looking quite pale. His expression turned to one of relief seeing both Ernest and Erts.

"By the stars, I cannot believe you two are here!" He yelled hugging them both. "From what I read, you should both be dead!" He exclaimed hugging them still.

"We're very much alive, thank you." Ernest said somewhat nervously as he and his brother returned the hug. Fester pulled away quickly looking very pale again.

"I'm sorry that you have come at such a bad time." Ernest frowned then hearing this news. The last thing they needed was for more of their family members to have been murdered.

"Such a bad time?" He asked. Fester nodded slowly.

"Yes…you see, my assistant has been found dead. He was giving a prediction to a silver haired boy an-"

"Hiead!" Both Gareas and Ernest screamed out at the same time. Fester looked at them and nodded.

"Yes. He seemed…to not exactly like the prediction he got. So instead of just taking it or going off to get drunk, he killed my assistant." Zero frowned and seemed to stay quiet for the rest of the time as Fester explained everything that happened. Gareas and Ernest listened eagerly since they wanted to kill Hiead and if he had any weak spots, they wanted to know about it. After a good two hour talk Fester stretched out a bit, his story finally complete. "And that's when he walked out of the house."

Gareas nodded.

"Okay then." Gareas said smirking. "Now we figure out what his horoscope was and now we hit him where it hurts!" Fester frowned.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have the power to talk to the dead. I am no necromancer." Fester said saying the word "Necromancer" rudely like it was some sort of a sin.

"What's a ne-" Erts put his hand over Zero's mouth.

"I'll tell you later," Erts whispered and Zero raised an eyebrow curiously and nodded a okay. Fester sighed again and looked to his huge telescope.

"Allow me to get my mind off things. I wish to tell all of you your fortunes. Perhaps after..."

"Alright." Ernest said smiling brightly. He already knew that Fester was only at ease when he was reading the stars so why not allow the old man some peace? He held his hand out to him and the astronomer took it.

"I'll start with you, then go with Erts, then his lover, then the green haired fool-"

"HEY!"

"Then move on to Zero."

"How'd you know my name?" Zero asked in awe at the man.

"I can read the stars. I know who you all are. I'm afraid I haven't been able to read the stars as of late though. I have been very busy and with the death of king Zior things have been in complete chaos."

"So my grandfather is really dead then?" Ernest asked quietly, Erts grabbed onto his arm. He'd had a sinking feeling that the rest of his family was being taken from his world, he'd just hoped that the others had somehow escaped to Fletz.

"I'm afraid so." Fester said nodding to the door. "Shall we?" Ernest nodded.

(X)

"Yes." They both walked outside into the night. The minute the door was shut Gareas started glaring at the door.

"Who does he think he is?"

"Jealous?" Zero asked with a smirk.

"No offense, but that's kind of sick Gareas. Prince Ernest would not be with someone twice his age." Clay said once again pushing his glasses up with his index finger. Gareas glared at him and then turned back to the door.

"I meant that guy Hiead. I saw the look he gave Ernest."

"The look he gave him?" Zero asked raising an eyebrow. "He smirked at us, looked at me, then back to you and Ernest then to Yu then to me and then left."

"ERNEST IS MINE!" Gareas screamed out death glaring zero. "NOT HIS!"

"GET OUT OF MY FACE! AND SINCE WHEN DID YOU WANT TO BE WITH ERNEST THAT BADLY ANYWAY? I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU DIDN'T WANT TO BE WITH HIM! YOU EVEN WENT OUT OF YOUR WAY TO PUSH HIM AWAY FROM YOU!" Zero screamed back at his friend.

"SHUT THE HELL UP ZERO! I DECIDED JUST A FE MINUTES AGO!"

"YOU IDIOT!"

"STOP FIGHTING!" Erts screamed getting both of the two boy's attention. "Just stop…Gareas you better think about this. My brother is still hurting pretty badly, because of the stunt you pulled. If you hurt him again, I will allow Yu to kill you." Yu smirked at Gareas hearing this and Erts won a death glare from Gareas.

"Look. Jus-"

"Will all of you stop it? I'm trying to look at the stars here, and you're screaming is driving me nuts!" Clay yelled at them never taking his eyes away from the telescope.

"Sorry." Erts said truly sorry for disturbing his boyfriend.

"It's alright, just the rest of you. Shut up."

"Don't tell me what to do!" Zero yelled back at him.

"Zero, give it a rest," Erts said glaring at him.

(X)

"They like to fight a lot don't they?" Fester said with a small chuckle hearing all the yelling and screaming coming from inside. "And it seems like you're the favorite subject to fight about as well." Ernest nodded smiling nervously and sweat dropped a bit.

"It never ends," he admitted. Fester laughed at this and looked up at the stars.

"You have feelings for the green fool in there?" Fester asked. Ernest laughed a bit and nodded.

"Yes, his name is Gareas."

"Yes well, everyone else seems to call him something else."

"He's stubborn," Ernest agreed.

"And rude. Let's see…now. You've acquired a object of great strength after your father's death. He left you something."

"Yes." Ernest answered smiling.

"This power, it will help you obtain the goal you have in mind." 'Wonder which goal he means..' Ernest thought with a small smile. "Also. This city, it will become a important thing to you, more so than it is now." Ernest smiled hearing that. "The stars refuse to tell me anymore." Ernest nodded.

"It's alright. You can go on with Erts now." Ernest walked inside.

(Two readings later)

"Welcome green haired fool," the astronomer said pleasantly.

Gareas glared at the old man they had just met that day and was already calling him names. This guy had no right, at least the others did.

"Would you stop calling me that?"

"Only when you stop acting like one." Fester said laughing and looked up into the sky. "You're on a mission. You actually have more than one, and you're very confused. You cannot tell if your feelings are true or not. Nor can you discover the reason for why you want to keep going on in life after you've lost everything. All of these answers will come to you. I do have some advice for you though, man to man Gareas." Fester looked away from the stars and turned to Gareas a serious look on his face. "If you believe you truly want to be with Ernest. If you desire to be his lover. Tomorrow, go with your instincts while here in this city. Follow your heart rather than your mind. And things will turn out just the way they're supposed to." Gareas nodded slowly and walked back into the house.

A few minutes later Zero walked out. Before he could say anything though Fester said one thing to him.

"The person you are thinking about, will become both your enemy, and your friend." With that Fester walked right back into the house. Zero just stared at him.

"Hey! I want my reading! Don't leave me out of this! GET BACK HERE!" Zero ran after Fester into his house.

"Nope, your time is up. I gave you what you needed."

"GAVE ME WHAT I NEEDED? YOU BARELY TALKED TO ME!" zero shouted at the old man.

"And that's just what you needed."

"Tell me!" Zero demanded. The rest of the night insured lots of fighting and Zero being ignored.

By morning things had settled down and Ernest had decided -even after seeing Hiead around- to go off on his own and have a look around. This was his mother's home town after all. He'd spent many of his summers in this place, he knew what to avoid. Smiling he walked down the long white roads looking around at all the people. No one seemed to recognize him since it'd been awhile since the last time time he'd been there and for the first time in his life, he was able to walk around freely without the people jumping at him and asking for blessings and other such things. At some point Ernest found a store he fell in love with. He walked into it without a second thought and started looking around. He'd always loved this store, even as a young child because of all the shiny objects in it. 'I still can't believe my favorite shop, is the jewelry shop...but at least it's still here!' Ernest thought mentally laughing as he walked in.

He started looking around at all the different jewelry. Most of it was of course stars made of all different kinds of gems and colors.

"They all look so beautiful." He said trying to take it all in when his eyes fell on a barrel full of good luck star gems.

"You really like them?" Ernest jumped and turned around standing face to face with Gareas. He wasn't sure who he was expecting, but he let out a sigh of relief when he saw it was merely Gareas and not some weirdo.

"Warn me when I have my shield up! I didn't know you were there." He said doing his best to calm himself down. Even if he was the fool who'd left of his own free will, there was a murderous winglie after him for the moon sphere in his body.

"Sorry." Gareas said laughing a bit as he looked around at the store. "This place is kind of cool. I mean I've never seen this many stars made out of gemstones in my life. And that's saying something since I live in Lohan." Ernest smiled at that and nodded looking again at the whole store before letting his eyes settle back onto Gareas.

"Fletz is the city of stars. It's one of the most beautiful cities around. Though I have to admit, I'm a big Donau fan as well."

"Donau?" Gareas asked curiously.

"Don't worry about it. We're not going there." Ernest started for the door, but before he could walk out Gareas grabbed his elbow.

"Hey, wait a minute." Ernest stopped and looked at Gareas questioningly. Gareas just smiled and walked over to the store owner. He came back a few minutes later and before Ernest could say anything put a necklace with a sapphire star pendant on him.

"Gar…thank you!" Ernest turned around and hugged him. It wasn't that Ernest couldn't afford it, heck he probably could have just told the shop owner who he was and gotten it for free, but the fact that Gareas had bought him a gift. Gareas smiled returning the hug.

"You're welcome. I figured you'd like it."

"I love it!" A few people smiled at this probably thinking Ernest was once again a girl receiving a gift from her boyfriend. 'I'm going to have to change my clothes.' Ernest thought to himself with a laugh. He hugged Gareas tighter and then pulled back. "Thank you so much." Gareas nodded and kissed Ernest on the cheek.

"Fester wanted me to come and get you anyway. He wants us back at his house to tell us something. The prince nodded and they both walked out of the store Gareas's arm once again wrapped around Ernest's waist.

'This is so confusing….' Ernest thought to himself. 'One minute he wants to be with me…the next it's like he doesn't even want me near him.' Gareas pulled Ernest closer and they walked over the bridge getting a few more "Awws" and "How cute" From the people also crossing the bridge.

(X)

'Fester told me to go with my instincts…..does that mean Ernest and I are destined to be together…? Right now…I sure hope so.' Gareas thought to himself as they made there way over to Fester's house. At the moment he couldn't think of ever being without the prince.

(TBC)

End, forward on.


	6. Illusions

Yaoi means **GUY** with **GUY!**

Yuri means GIRL with **GIRL!**

And

Straight means GUY with GIRL! Or GIRL with GUY!

You have been Warned ! Now that we're all on the same wavelength here, let's start the story!

1) For thoughts = ' insert thoughts '

mind speech = italics

(X) is pov change and or time jump

Disclaimer: I don't own this

Ch,6: Illusions

"I can't believe…we've been here for two days…we leave tomorrow. And things are still so…complicated." Gareas said to himself standing outside on the balcony of his room. It was currently night time and so the stars were out shining brightly. Gareas was trying his best not to let his emotions get the best of him as he stood there wondering why they'd stayed so long after the affairs in Fletz had been dealt with. Of course he loved this place, it was nice and quiet and Ernest seemed more relaxed here than he had at any of the other villages they'd been to, but something just kept bugging him. There was some little thing that just kept poking at him in the back of his mind that he couldn't quite place.

Gareas sighed and looked over the castle's court yard that could be seen from his balcony. Down there Ernest sat currently talking to Yu. Gareas had wanted to go down there for about an hour now, but knew that Ernest and Yu been friends longer, and deserved the time alone. With all of the things that had been happening lately, Ernest had to be really stressed out.

"Are you going to be okay?" Gareas turned to the source of the voice, Zero, and nodded.

"I guess." Zero frowned moving across the bedroom and sat down on the bed.

"Come on Gar. What's buggin yeah? You're usually in a better mood than this. But, you've been quiet the past couple of hours, why?" Zero tried to fish out of his friend. Gareas shook his head smiling and walked back into the room. He lied down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling resting his head on his arms.

"I don't know. Things just seem…a bit weird don't they? Even Hiead seemed in a bit of a hurry to leave after the death of Fester's assistant, but no one actually went after him. And Fester didn't seem all that sad that his assistant was dead." Zero nodded.

"Yeah…but they couldn't exactly go after Hiead either. He was leaving and it's hard to go after someone when you have no leads." Gareas shook his head.

"Yeah I know that's true. Usually when that happens though they put up a reward of some sort and the bounty hunters go after the guy." Zero shrugged.

"Maybe they're to poor to do that."

"No, the kingdom itself does it that way the village or city can stay a safe place. I don't know maybe I'm getting paranoid…I just feel that there's something wrong with all of this." Zero thought for a few minutes before nodding.

"I Guess so." He lied down next to Gareas and then turned over to face him and poked him in the side. "So. Spill it, how's the thing between you and Ernest going?" Gareas turned his head to face Zero and blinked at him.

"You don't like beating around the bush much do you?" The teen asked. Zero grinned.

"I want all the details. TELL!" Gareas smirked at him and sat up.

"You want details? Alright." Gareas grabbed the pillow from behind him. "Ernest and I are getting along just fine since I bought him that necklace." He hit Zero aside the head with the pillow. Zero fell off in the bed not having been able to move quick enough and sat there on his butt laughing.

"Aww. I didn't think the prince liked jewelry. Does Gareas want some too?" He asked laughing more. Still grinning the teen jumped off the bed and grabbed his little friend by the top of his shirt.

"I don't know. Can I get a ring so when I punch you it hurts more?" He asked smirking evilly. Zero sweat dropped and tried to pull away.

"What kind of idiot do I look like?" Zero whined.

"A very big one." Gareas dropped Zero onto the floor and walked over to the door. "Come on. I got a job for you." Zero sat up with a groan holding his head.

"I'm the group punching bag….I WANT A NEW JOB!" Zero screamed at his "Friend." Gareas just shook his head and walked out of the room. Pouting Zero ran after him to find out just what it was his so-called-friend wanted.

(X)

"You really like him don't you?" Yu asked Ernest slowly. Ernest nodded slowly and smiled slightly.

"I admit…I'm sorry. I did have a crush on you Yu. It just seemed to fade away after awhile…but I just seem to be stuck on Gareas now." Yu nodded.

"It's fine. They'd of never allowed a relationship between us anyway." Ernest shook his head slowly.

"No…I believe my father would of allowed it. Though…how much the others in the city would of, I don't know." Yu looked up at the stars a bit before turning back to Ernest. Ernest was currently sitting at the edge of the pound in the court yard of Fletz's castle. Yu was on the bench near the pound watching over the prince, his friend.

"….perhaps." Yu said a quietly. Ernest saw this as a cue to change the subject and went back to looking at the pond instead.

"So. What do you think of Gareas…when he's not being an idiot?" Yu snorted at this and folded his arms across his chest.

"I think I have to completely agree with the saying "Love is blind."" Ernest started laughing and shook his head enjoying this talk. It was the first time in a long while that Yu and him had openly talked about things together. Even at the castle, Yu would hide his feelings and emotions from Ernest no matter how much Ernest probed. Finally though, as when they were younger, they were able to sit down and talk openly as if their ranks didn't matter at all. It was nice.

"Well that may be true. Though I sti-" Ernest let out a loud scream and fell head first into the pond Zero falling in next to him.

"SORRY!" Zero screamed out sitting up so his head wouldn't go under the water. Ernest sat up himself and just stared at him.

"What are you doing out here Zero?" He asked sounding a bit stressed. Yu just looked at them as though they were both nuts before realizing he should help. He held his hand out and Ernest took it gratefully getting to his feet.

"Sorry." Zero muttered again also getting out of the pond. "You guys just seemed to be having a nice conversation without any yelling. It's so rare around here, I thought I'd join in." Zero said with a big grin on his face. Ernest sweat dropped and sat down on the bench next to Yu.

'Though you're usually the reason why people usually end up yelling in the conversations Zero,' Ernest thought to himself, but figured it was best not to say it aloud. It would just cause more fighting.

"Yes, I admit, they are getting more and more rare," Ernest said with forced kindness.

Yu seemed to decide that Ernest could get sick from being out in the night air and wet, even if it was just early September. He took his shirt off and wrapped it around Ernest. Ernest looked over to Yu blushing.

"Thank you…" Ernest was truly grateful, he didn't want to go inside just yet and now he wouldn't have to exactly worry about getting sick either. What did worry him though, was Yu getting sick now that he had no shirt on.

"You're welcome my lord."

"Trying to steal him while I'm not looking?" Gareas walked over to them from the back door. Ernest sighed.

'We just aren't going to be able to talk unless we tie everyone else up are we?' Ernest thought to himself with a laugh. 'Though that may be a fun idea…' The prince quickly shook his head making the idea vanish. He wasn't about to try and tie Gareas and Zero up and then leave them out here while Yu and him went inside to talk.

Yu death glared Gareas and growled at him as he sat down on the ground looking at everyone else.

"I wouldn't dare touch the prince." He said in a cold and emotionless tone. Gareas grinned at him and grabbed Ernest's arm and dragged him into his lap. He wrapped his arms around him trying to warm him up.

"Good. Than we have no problems." Ernest blinked a bit in shock at how things were starting to unfold here in the court yard, but figured this was all for the best anyway and started to relax in his arms.

'This feels nice…' Ernest thought to himself. Yu glare at Gareas only seemed to intensify.

"What are either of you doing out here?" He demanded. Zero shrugged sitting back down in the pond.

"I don't know. I'm just having some fun."

Ernest blinked at Zero's stupidity and shook his head sighing. He closed his eyes and rested the back of his head on Gareas' strong warm chest.

Gareas smiled and tightened his embrace around him.

(X)

"So, when do we leave anyway?" Gareas asked him nuzzling him a bit.

"In two days. Tomorrow Fester wants us to stay so we can go to the ball they're having in honor of us. Then we leave the next morning." Gareas nodded a bit satisfied with this answer. Even though he was enjoying his stay here, he kept getting this odd feeling.

"Hey…I don't mean to change the subject here, but does anyone else feel that things here are just…I don't know a bit odd?" He asked wondering if he was just paranoid or if anyone else was having the same feelings.

"Odd? Hmm….No. Not really." Ernest said after thinking it over a bit. Zero shook his head and Yu just shrugged.

"Guess it's just me then." Gareas said after they'd given their answer. Ernest yawned a bit and Gareas took this as a sign that Ernest was tired and sat up pulling Ernest up with him as he did. "Let's get you some medicine and then off to bed." Ernest looked at him smiling a bit and rested his head against his shoulder.

"Alright…" Gareas walked Ernest into the castle in is normal position, arm wrapped around his waist. Zero smiled and turned to Yu.

(X)

"Even if you hate Gar. You have to admit. They make a cute couple." Zero giggled. "Besides. Look how happy Ernest is." With that Zero ran into the castle after them. Yu glared at Zero ,but ended up sighing in defeat and followed. As he walked into the castle a boy slammed face first into him. Both him and the boy both fell onto the ground.

"Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to. I just fell and ack!" He got to his feet and grabbed Yu's wrist pulling him to his own feet. Yu noticed that the boy was actually quite taller than him. The boy blinked a few times and than laughed upon seeing Yu wasn't wearing a shirt. Yu glared at him and the boy shook his head quickly. "Sorry again." He walked off down the hall laughing. Growling Yu walked down the hallway towards his room to get a shirt and then headed off to the doctors to watch over Ernest.

(X)

"So…taking this will make sure I don't get sick?" The doctor nodded and Ernest took the cup full of the herbs. He drank it quickly so he wouldn't have to taste much of it and then swallowed it. He yawned a bit and rested against Gareas eyes closed. "Thanks." He said yawning once more. The doctor nodded.

"Make sure he gets plenty of rest tonight. Wouldn't want the prince to get sick the day before his ball." With that the doctor went back to mixing herbs and other potions. Gareas helped Ernest back to his room making sure he didn't fall asleep while walking there. When they had all made it to Ernest's room Yu headed off to his own, as did Zero. The minute they were gone, Ernest grabbed Gareas' wrist and dragged him into his room and slammed the door shut.

Gareas blinked in amazement at how fast that'd happened and how Ernest had managed the act when he seemed so tired. Smirking evilly Ernest dragged Gareas over to his bed and forced him down onto it.

"I'm not sleeping alone tonight." Gareas raised an eyebrow at this.

"Oh really?" Ernest's smirk grew and he lied down next to him and rested his head down on his chest.

"I'm going to sleep. Try anything, and you'll be sorry." Ernest said yawning, but you could still hear the humor in his tone. Gareas wrapped his arms around him and held him close.

"Fine. Sure. If you really want me to."

(X)

Zero's turn to sigh and look up at the stars. He'd wanted to talk to Erts, but he was currently in town with Clay doing who knows what. He was bored out of his mind, had nothing to do, and wanted someone to talk to. He wasn't near ready to go to bed, and he really wanted to do something. ANYTHING! He probably should of went with Ernest to get some medicine of his own, but figured he was made of tougher stuff than him and decided against it. "AHH! SOMEONE COME AND DO SOMETHING WITH ME!" Zero screamed out loudly.

By morning the whole castle had woken up early and was getting ready for the big ball. Every servant, maid, cook, and guard and everything else was running around and doing something. Clay, Erts, Ernest, Gareas, and Yu all seemed to have disappeared. Zero was left to entertain himself, which from last night he knew, wasn't good. After screaming out last night that he was bored, he'd gone to find Gareas, which had turned out to be a big mistake. He'd walked into the room. No one. So he headed off to Ernest's room which is where he did fine Gareas. Problem? The minute Gareas heard the door open up, and saw Zero, he threw a knife at him! Then Yu had come in and grabbed Zero from behind thinking him a murderer or something, slammed him onto the ground and put his spear to the back of his neck. Erts and Clay had come running to find out what all the commotion was and then the guards had seized him. They didn't find out until later that night, that it was in fact Zero and not some random person walking in to do the prince harm.

So now, Zero was walking around the castle trying to find Erts or Clay, since he seemed to either get hurt or put in jail when he was around Ernest, Yu, or Gareas. Especially Gareas. Zero looked around more and sighed. Why did everyone seem to be ignoring him today? Why were they all being so mean to him. What'd he do? They'd been the ones that got him in trouble.

"There you are Zero." Zero looked up happily. Finally, someone wanted to talk to him. "I've been looking for you." Zero's eyes lit up until he saw who it was. Fester.

"Umm…hey." He said not to sure of what to say. Fester smiled and nodded to the room he was next to. "I never got to tell you your full future that night. I didn't think you'd enjoy having the others being able to hear it."

"Huh?" Zero jumped up and down. "I KNEW IT! THERE IS MORE!" Zero grabbed Fester's hand and dragged him into the room. He slammed the door shut and put his back against the door. "TALK OLD MAN!" He demanded. Fester laughed and smiled at him.

"Alright, alright. I suppose I deserve that. I told you that the person you had been thinking about that night, would become your enemy and also your friend, did I not?" Zero nodded quickly wanting to hear the rest. "Well. Tell me, the person you were thinking of was Hiead, was it not?" Zero nodded again a bit unnerved, that this guy knew so much. "Well. It seems that this friendship will be very deep." Zero looked at him and blinked a bit lowering his arms from the door.

"What do you mean? Don't tell me I'm gonna have to kill him!" Fester's turn to blink.

"No. Well…I suppose that may happen in the future, but for now. No. Something is going to happen soon. Something unexpected. When it does, the others are going to be very angry. You must keep a clear head." Zero nodded slowly.

"Okay. Keep a clear head, SURE THING!" He said happily. Fester smiled and walked to the door moving Zero out of the way.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to be going on to help the others with the ball tonight." Zero nodded again and moved out of the way, finally satisfied with his horoscope.

(X)

Fester walked out of the room and smiled to himself halfway down the hallway when he was out of Zero's hearing. "What a fool." He said eyes flashing red and headed off to carry out what must be done.

(X)

Ernest looked around in the mirror at his new outfit that he was supposed to wear to the ball tonight. He really enjoyed his old outfit a lot more, it kept more of his skin covered, but he guessed for one night, it'd be fine. He was now wearing a white sleeved shirt that had a small hood on the back of it so he could put it on to make the white shirt look more like a white cloak. The shirt was tucked in to the white pants. He was wearing black boots that went up to his upper ankle. He had a bunch of black belts on. There was one black belt that went around his waist. Than another one that was much smaller that went under it. One around both of his lower thighs. .He had another one that connected to his normal belt and wrapped around his right arm. That one had silver studs on half of it. He was wearing a black glove that didn't cover his fingers on his left hand, nothing on his right one. The glove was being kept on by a small purplish belt that wrapped around his wrist.

'I wonder if Gareas's will like it.' He thought to himself turning around in the mirror again for about the tenth time. Getting up enough courage he left the room and went in search of his knight.

(X)

Yu frowned hearing a loud scream, some pots and pans being slammed around and then saw the same boy that had ran into him yesterday get thrown out of the kitchen and slam into the wall a few feet away from the door.

"Ow…man you'd swear that they were getting ready for a wedding in there." He said groaning and getting to his feet.

"AND STAY OUT!" The cook screamed at him. The boy glared at the cook.

"Hey! Come on! I'm invited to the ball anyway! I have every right to at least taste test!" He yelled back. The cook growled stomping out of the kitchen with a huge wooden spoon.

"YOU WANT A TASTE TEST? I'LL GIVE YOU A TASTE TEST!" The cook raised his hand in the air with the spoon and went to hit the boy. The boy quickly dodged the hit and got to his feet running off down the hall. The cook screamed after him and threw the spoon at the back of the boys head. The boy grabbed the back of his head, but didn't stop and laughing ran out of the hall.

Yu shook his head watching the display and walked pass the cook. He'd seen enough stupidity already today. He needed to go out in the court yard and clear his thoughts.

(X)

'This feeling just keeps getting worse…' Gareas thought to himself as he looked at the flowers in the court yard. He'd been looking around it now for the first time in day light and it was actually quite beautiful. There were roses and other flowers climbing around the high walls, a big pond near a stone bench -the same one Ernest and Zero had fallen into the night before- near the back end. There were many trees giving lots of shade and of course, lots of birds and fruits all around. The view was actually very breath taking and it made Gareas relax being there. Gareas turned when the door opened to see who it was walking out. He smiled seeing Ernest and walked over to him.

"You're new outfit?" He asked smiling and wrapping his arms around him.

"You like it?" Ernest asked blushing a bit and relaxing in his arms. Gareas nodded.

"You bet." They both stood there enjoying each others' presence for awhile. After what seemed like hours Gareas finally spoke up. "So…what happens after today?" Ernest looked up at him and smiled.

"I want you to come with me…back to Bale I mean." Gareas frowned then and closed his eyes holding back tears. He'd just remembered last night, he'd promised himself, Zero, and especially Dabas that he'd avenge his death.

"I can't…" He said slowly and wanted to kick himself feeling Ernest go stiff.

"Why not?" He asked quickly pulling out of Gareas' hug. "I thought this was going well. I thought you were happy." Ernest said obviously trying to keep his own emotions under control.

(X)

"It's not that. Believe me, I am happy, but…Ernest I made a promise. I have to kill Hiead. I have to make him pay for killing Dabas…and for destroying Zero and mine's home." Ernest frowned at him letting the information sink in. The fact that tonight would be the last day Gareas and him would be able to spend any time together ate away at him like acid. He never wanted to be away from Gareas again. Never. Yet it seemed like fate had other plans for him.

"Gareas…" Gareas wrapped his arms around Ernest again pulling him into a deep kiss. Ernest gave in wrapping his own arms around him and deepening it himself. The world seem to stop and time stood still. Everything was going great. Ernest fell to his knees. Gareas quickly looked down to him and tried to get him back to his feet ,but it was no use, Ernest was down for the count.

"What's wrong?" Gareas not being able to get him up, had gotten onto his own knees. Ernest swayed back and forth on his knees looking sick.

"I don't know…I…just feel….dizzy…" He fell foreword. Gareas caught him quickly just as Yu walked into the court yard.

(X)

"What did you do?" Yu demanded from him. Gareas looked up at Yu and sighed in relief.

"Something's wrong. He just got dizzy all of a sudden and now he can't get up. He's out cold." He said quickly. Yu's face took on a worried expression and together they got Ernest to his feet. They picked him up and moved him quickly down the hall to his room where he could rest. They lied him on the bed and covered him up with a blanket.

"What happened?" Yu asked his tone calm and collected, trying to figure out what happened. "Slowly this time." Gareas nodded taking a deep breath and slowly started explaining to Yu everything that had happened. Yu nodded to show he was listening and was frowning deeply by the end of the explanation. "Something is wrong."

(X)

Clay and Erts were both in bed at the moment. The ball was going to be starting in a few hours, and Erts had wanted to rest before going to it. Clay had stayed awake, not really that tired and was holding him close. The sun had just started setting not to long ago, news of Ernest passing out in the court yard, though kept quiet, had made it's way to them and some of the other staff members. Clay figured he should probably wake Erts up so he could tell him about his brother's incident and help him get ready for the ball. He poked Erts a few times trying to wake him up. Just as he did, something told him something was wrong. He felt like he was being watched. A thought ran through his head, he grabbed Erts and jumped off the bed and rolled under it keeping Erts close. Erts obviously woke up at this, and Clay had to put his hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. He kept thinking the same thoughts over and over again so Erts would read them and get the idea to stay quiet and not to move.

Erts seemed to understand and Clay was able to removed his hand from Ert's mouth. Just as he did two legs slammed onto the ground. They weren't human though, far from it. The legs looked like they were scalely and leathery like a lizards. There were sharp talons coming out of the four big toes on its foot. It's taloned foot tapped the floor as it stood in place as though looking for something it couldn't see. Erts eyes widened at this thing and Clay held him a bit closer. The creature walked across the room trying to find it's prey it's talons hitting the ground with every movement.

(X)

Gareas frowned stroking Ernest's hair gently.

"I'll kill whoever the hell did this." Gareas said ready to punch a wall and put a hole in it. He wanted to know who'd poisoned Ernest, and now. He wanted to take the idiot who'd did and destroy them. Ernest had only been poisoned with sleeping herbs, but it made no difference to him. He was getting pissed at all the bad luck they all seemed to be having and wanted it to end. Sighing he stroked Ernest's check gently and turned to Yu. "Will you help me find and kill whoever the hell had the nerve to poison Ernest?" Yu nodded without a second thought.

"Yes." Gareas smirked.

"Truce?" Yu nodded and held his hand out. Gareas took it quickly and they shook hands. They were going to find the fool that did this, and destroy them little by little and then kill them.

(X)

Zero blinked swaying a bit to balcony. For some reason he felt oddly tired. He frowned and grabbed the railing around the balcony outside of his room. Frowning he almost fell over the edge, but he caught himself. He fell to his knees looking down through the railing at the ground wincing.

"I knew medicine was no good!" He said coughing and falling backwards onto his side. He winced again and passed out.

(X)

A cloaked figure showed up just as he fell and grabbed Zero around the waist. He picked him up and smirked jumping down from the balcony to the ground.

(X)

Hiead poked the fire with a stick. He sighed and looked up at the sky. Something was wrong, somewhere something was wrong, but he couldn't quite place it. He threw the stick into the fire. He turned around looking for the source of the sound when he heard footsteps coming his way. He stood up and headed towards the sound. As he got closer to the source however the footsteps stopped.

"Who are you?" The figure that had been walking asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." Hiead said. He walked over to the figure and noticed he had a bag thrown over his shoulder. No…not a bag. A body. "Who's that?" He asked smirking. The man glared at Hiead even though he couldn't be seen in the darkness.

"What do you care?"

"That scent is familiar. Hand him over." The man took a step back.

"What are you?"

"The question you should be asking is how much longer you have?"

"Huh?" Hiead grabbed his sword and shoved it through the mans heart. The man fell to the ground obviously dead. Hiead quickly grabbed Zero before he hit the ground as well. He moved back over to his fire pulling Zero with.

TBC

As a doujinshi this might make it, but I'm really starting to doubt this as a written story. I'm going to have to rewrite things a bit more than just fixing up grammar and small plot errors.


	7. Illusion broken

This story will be a Yaoi.

Yaoi means **GUY** with **GUY!**

Yuri means GIRL with **GIRL!**

And

Straight means GUY with GIRL! Or GIRL with GUY!

You have been Warned ! Now that we're all on the same wavelength here, let's start the story!

1) mind speech is in italics

thoughts = ' insert thoughts '.

(X) Is pov switch and or time jump

Disclaimer: I don't own this

Ch,7: Illusion broken

'I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong here…' Hiead thought to himself sighing and once again looked over the whole area. He'd gotten the idiot Zero back, he'd killed off who seemed to be the bad guy, but that wasn't it. Nothing else should seem out of place, but it did.

"Gareas…stop it…." Zero groaned turning over in his sleep.

Hiead looked over to Zero to see exactly what was going on and noticed a small animal licking his face. Hiead blinked staring at him. 'Did this Gareas lick his face in the morning or something?'

"GAH! STOP IT!" Sora screamed sitting up almost hitting the animal. The animal however was too smart for this and ran away before Zero's fist hit it. "Lousy no good…hey…" Zero started looking around. "WHERE AM I!" Zero shouted then went silent seeing the fire in front of him. "Hey. Fire." He smiled and started warming up by it.

"You really are an idiot." Hiead said smirking at Zero who had nearly jumped out of his skin at hearing Hiead's voice.

"HEY!" Zero shouted glaring at Hiead. "Don't scare me like that! It's dark out, and…it's dark out!" He said growling and inched a bit closer to the fire. "So stop being mean."

Hiead rolled his eyes and looked back over to Fletz. Something seemed completely off about the place. He still just couldn't quite place it.

"You." He said turning to Zero and glaring at him. "You just came from the castle. What's going on in there?"

Zero shrugged.

"I took this medicine the doctor gave me, and kind of just passed out." He said as though it was completely normal. "The last thing I remember is staring at the floor of the balcony…and HEY WAIT A MINUTE! I SHOULDN'T BE HERE! DID YOU KIDNAP ME!" Zero screamed out crawling over to Hiead trying to demand an answer. "ANSWER ME NOW!"

Hiead rolled his eyes again and pushed Zero over.

"Stop screaming you idiot. Do you want to go back to Fletz that badly?" He asked no emotions in his voice. He wasn't quite sure why he offered to take Zero back. He'd of never done it for anyone else, but this boy just seemed a bit different. He just felt like helping him and decided that since he had nothing else to do, he might as well.

Zero nodded.

"Yes…I want to go back." Zero said quietly and looked somewhat longingly at the castle.

"Fine." Hiead got to his feet and started walking down the path towards the castle.

(X)

Zero grinned and got to his feet following Hiead off towards the castle. Maybe he could get Hiead to join them.

"Hey." Zero called after him cheerfully.

"What?" Hiead asked emotionlessly.

"Why don't you join us?" Zero asked putting his arms behind his head as he followed. "It'd be cool, and then we wouldn't have to go on some really long trip. We could just go home. "Hiead ignored him and kept walking."Please?" Zero whined trying to get Hiead to agree.

"Why would I even think about joining your group? You're trying to all kill me remember?" Hiead said still walking.

"….well…if you explain why you did it and say sorry, I'm sure they'll let you come!"

"I'm not sorry." Hiead said shrugging. "I've no reason to be sorry."

Zero glared at him.

"Why not? Why are you killing everyone anyway? These moon and sun stones. What are they anyway?" Zero growled.

Hiead went silent for a minute slowly thinking it over. He felt somewhat persuaded to tell him, but he ignored the feeling shaking his head reminding himself that Zero really had nothing to do with this.

"You killed my father…" Zero said starting to shake somewhat. "You killed my dad and the guy who seemed like a second father. I have every right to know!" Zero screamed stopping in his tracks.

Hiead frowned at this. He knew about killing Dabas, the stupid merchant from Lohan, but as far as he knew, he'd never killed any of Zero's direct family members.

"And just when did I kill your family member?" Hiead asked folding his arms across his chest glaring at him.

"…In Bale. You killed my dad." Zero said his voice starting to trail off somewhat. He'd been told the news after he'd gone Seles.

"….." Hiead shook his head and headed towards the city again. "Get over it." He told him no hint of emotion in his voice anymore.

Zero kept on growling pissed that Hiead was no longer being "nice" and ran after him.

They made it to the boarder of Fletz where they both stopped. Zero had his head down and was staring quietly at the ground while Hiead just stood there, his arms folded across his chest.

(X)

"Go." He ordered Zero getting sick of the feelings that were starting to take form inside of him.

Zero nodded slowly and they both started their separate ways.

"AHHH!" Zero screamed out flying backwards and landing near Hiead on the ground lying on his back looking somewhat burned. "Ahh…"

"What in the hell!" Hiead screamed out kneeling down next to him. "What the…?" He looked over to where Zero had just been. A wave in the air had appeared and seemed to shimmer across something and then just vanish. "….I see…." Hiead said before he started laughing.

"WHAT'S SO FUNNY!" Zero demanded death glaring him.

"I thought something was off. It's all an illusion!"

The area that had just shimmered froze and a long crack appeared down the side of it.

(X)

"Hey…" Gareas looked around the room quickly. The whole room had started to shake and he wanted an answer as to why it was doing it and now. Growling he looked around again and let his gaze fall on Yu. "What do you think is going on?" He asked in shock.

"I don't know." Yu answered truly unsure as to what was going on. He'd never had this happen to him in his life. Perhaps it was an earthquake, the ground was shaking enough for it to be one.

(X)

"Hiead!" Zero screamed out as the whole village shattered. Everywhere, the illusion of the city of Fletz went flying as though it was made of glass. Bits and pieces shot out in every direction showing mercy to nothing and slamming into the rocks that marked the beginning of the Valley of corrupted Gravity.

"I should have known." Hiead said smirking and shaking his head. "What an amazing illusion…" Zero looked up at Hiead frowning.

"What the heck are you talking about?" He asked seriously wanting an answer now. This was really starting to get to him. So many things didn't seem as what they really were.

The pieces of the illusion flew up into the night sky the normal moon vanishing leaving alone the green hue of the never setting moon. The sky shimmered and slowly started to transform from dark blue to mixes of blue and purple as the sky somewhat brightened and seemed to come alive as though the real sky had eaten the magic.

(X)

Erts and Clay looked around in confusion as the castle and city vanished and all that was left remaining was a barren land full of rocks floating and levitating for one spot to another. Some were huge land platforms that were sticking out of the air from no where. Currently Erts and Clay were hiding under a large, but flat rock that had only a few seconds ago, been the bed.

The creature that had flown through the "window" and was still looking for them so they couldn't actually explore their surroundings, but it didn't look good.

(X)

"Shit!" Gareas screamed grabbing Ernest as the "bed" he was on that turned out to actually be a rock started to float downwards. He pulled him up and over onto a larger non moving platform and stumbled backwards falling onto his bottom holding Ernest close. "Damnit…what is going on…?" He asked the darkness frowning. He'd never had to go through anything like this before!

Yu had quickly walked over to Gareas and started to inspect Ernest quickly. He nodded showing that he was satisfied that Ernest was one hundred percent okay and looked around. He froze seeing the huge lizard like creature not to far away from where they were at.

"We must get the prince away from here at all costs." He said taking a step foreword getting ready to fight this thing if need be. The creature hadn't seen them yet, but if it did, he wasn't about to let it touch Ernest even once.

(X)

"What is that thing?" Zero asked looking at the lizard thing curiously. He'd never seen a monster like this on any of his travels.

"It's a doll." Hiead commented shrugging a bit as though it didn't matter. "Someone else around here is controlling it. No doubt the same one who turned the Valley of Corrupted Gravity into Fletz."

Zero nodded slowly frowning at this and froze seeing Erts and Clay under the slab of rock.

"Hiead, my friends…they're going to get hurt! We have to save them!" He screamed grabbing Hiead's arm and tugging on it begging him as well as giving Hiead huge puppy eyes.

Hiead growled pulling his arm away causing Zero to fall back onto his butt.

"Don't touch me." He said his voice taking back on it's emotionless tone. "And I don't have to do anything. If they die, that just makes my job a lot easier." He said with a smirk.

All the blood drained out of Zero's face hearing this and a huge area of the rock in front of them exploded. Smaller rocks from the explosion showered the entire area as a gigantic hand came out from under it. Then another shortly followed by two short legs. A deafening screech sounded through the air shattering many of the smaller rocks. The Earth Dragon had been set free.

"And now. It looks like my job will be easier." Hiead said folding his arms across his chest. Zero was safe, and at the moment that's all he seemed to really care about. Why even bother thinking about those other idiots, friends of his or not?

Zero started shaking a bit now. He couldn't let his friends die, not like this. And this dragon didn't exactly seem to happy to be woken up.

"Hiead…" He said looking at the ground still shaking his voice somewhat low. "I trust you…I really want to keep trusting you….you try and murder everyone around me, but I want you to be my friend." He went on his voice calm and somehow collected. "But…you…you make it almost impossible." The sky just around Zero started shifting colors from it's mystical blue and purple to pure black. "And….why….why Hiead! Why are you making me choose!" He demanded growling looking up at him just as his eyes seemed to transform.

Hiead took a step back and lightning shot down from the sky hitting Zero's arm.

"ZERO!" Hiead screamed out going to grab him, to pull him away from what he thought was dangerous, but he stopped short not hearing Zero scream out. He frowned then and stood there memorized by what started to happen.

More lightning struck down hitting Zero, the forearm, shoulders, chest, legs. Every inch that the Lightning hit, was replaced by a fine piece of armor. The lightning died down and Zero finally shifted his gaze from the stone ground to Hiead's eyes.

"I shouldn't have to make a choice…not between my friends and you…." He answered in almost a whisper.

"Just what do you think you're going to do?" Hiead asked. He couldn't quite place it himself, but he didn't want anything bad to happen to Zero. For some reason, he wanted Zero safe.

"What does it matter to you?" He asked venom dripping from every word. "You don't care about me, you certainly don't care about my friends." He took a step foreword and stopped when Hiead grabbed his shoulder.

"Look you idiot. That's a Dragon out there. A elemental dragon. You have no chance a-"

"I won't let my friends die!" He screamed out jerking his shoulder away from Hiead. "I refuse to!" He went on yelling.

Hiead let his arm slowly drop to his side shaking his head at Zero's stupidity. He was so stupid, and yet…innocent.

"Zero…"

"No." Zero ran for the edge of the cliff and jumped. His wings unfolded and he went soaring into the sky.

Hiead watched in sheer amazement. It'd been years sense he'd seen a dragoon in flight, and Zero being no different than the others, made the spectacle look pure graceful and beautiful.

"Do you always get into this much trouble?" Hiead asked wondering how Zero managed to fly so gracefully even though it was just his first time.

(X)

_Clay…_ Erts asked frowning and turning over to wrapped Clay in a tight embrace. This creature didn't feel right, held no thoughts of its own. He held back a small whimper and buried his face into Clay's shirt.

Clay smiled a bit at all of this and started stroking Erts' hair gently. He hoped this wouldn't get the attention of the monster, and doubted it would since they'd moved much more than this before without any problems, but didn't really like to test his luck.

_Clay…can you see my brother?_ He asked starting to relax somewhat. _He's not answering my call...one tap if you can two if you can't._ He said to him through mind speech hoping that his brother was okay.

Clay peered over the blonde and looked out over the rock terrain. He wasn't completely sure if that was Ernest, but he was pretty sure he saw him. He tapped Erts' once and then sent a wave of emotion showing he wasn't completely sure.

(X)

_Thanks…_ Erts' eyes closed and he started relaxing more. Whether or not Clay was telling the truth he didn't know, but for some reason he was starting to feel tired, and felt that he must trust his boyfriend's words.

(X)

"What the hell is that thing?" Gareas asked in horror seeing the huge dragon break apart from the rock just above the area that Erts and Clay were at. He noticed movement from below too and looked down to see the reptile like creature walking around.

Yu frowned a bit and walked over to the edge looking down to see what it was that Gareas seemed so worried about with a dragon just above their heads and froze instantly seeing the creature for himself.

"Frilled Lizard…" Yu said his frown deepening and he took a step away from the edge. This monster was quite strong and not something even Yu wanted to deal with.

"Hey wait." Gareas's voice took on a completely serious tone and the shocked look on his face was rewritten with one of determination. "That thing isn't alone." He muttered looking to the flat rock shelf that was jutting out of the huge rock behind it.

"What do you mean?" Yu asked shifting his gaze from the Frilled Lizard to Gareas' own and trying to follow it. He paled seeing the two figures under the rock shelf. "Is th-"

"Erts and Clay are down there." He answered cutting Yu off. They'd have left things alone seeing that the boys had a good hiding place, but the lizard kept getting to close to that spot for comfort.

"….We have to go save them." Gareas finally said frowning when he looked back to Ernest's unconscious form.

"Who-" Gareas closed his eyes and let out a slow deep breath.

"Keep Ernest safe. Do not let that dragon get him. I'm going to go get them." He turned and looked at Yu smirking. "Besides. It's not like Ernest and I can stay together right? He's a prince, I'm a commoner. Whether that means nothing to him or not, it will to the people."

Yu said nothing ,but nodded a bit realizing what Gareas was doing. He was trying to give himself enough courage and reason to go down there, face death, knowing there was a good chance he wouldn't make it since he had no weapons or armor.

"Take good care of Ernest for me huh? I really did like him…most of the time." He smirked and with that he jumped off landing onto the other small shelves under the top of the cliff that would lead him to the lizard.

Yu didn't watch though, he knew how brave Gareas was and hoped that he'd be able to give some time for Clay and Erts to get out of there.

He walked over to Ernest who though seemed completely out of this world, was starting to shiver, frown, and toss and turn.

(X)

Gareas landed onto the platform of rock that was under the cliff he had just recently left Ernest and Yu from. He pushed all thoughts of death from his mind and smirked staring at the lizard.

"Hey, you, overgrown lizard. Get over here. I need to distract you while my friends run." He said confidently.

(X)

Both Erts and Clay jumped hearing Gareas's voice.

_Did he just say…_ Erts mind speech trailed off. "Yeah…"Erts whispered aloud.

The Frilled Lizard's head jerked up and looked at Gareas growling.

"So you're finally going to play eh? Let's just hope you guys can climb fast!" "Gareas screamed running head long at the lizard.

"GAREAS!" They both screamed out looking at him and crawled out from under the rock shelf.

Gareas and the lizard had caught each other by the hands and were trying to push one another back.

"Get the hell out of here! Climb up those rocks and don't look back!" He screamed trying to push the lizard back. He had to admit though, this thing was really strong.

"Bu-"

"Don't worry about me! I said I'd protect the prince, I never said which one! Now climb!" He ordered and brought his leg up kneeing the giant lizard in the stomach.

The lizard let out a loud howl of pain and extend its claws slashing at Gareas.

Gar jumped back dodging the claws with ease. Obviously this monster's speed wasn't its strong point. The monster kept on attacking though and Erts and Clay made it to the top of the cliff where Yu helped them over the edge. Then all three of them stood there watching the fight.

Gar jumped back again this time almost falling off the edge of the cliff and was forced to go foreword so he wouldn't fall. The move cost him though, for as he went foreword the lizard came in and slashed him across the chest.

Growling Gareas fought back the pain and rolled to the side dodging another slash attack. He jumped onto the rock shelf that had concealed Erts and Clay beforehand and got his balance back.

The Frilled Lizard screamed loudly slamming its hand into a bolder and smashing it to pieces.

Gareas stared at the thing wide eyed.

"Good thing I'm not that bolder…" He muttered under his breath and staggered backwards in shock loosing his footing as the lizard jumped onto the rock shelf forcing it to crack and fall apart.

"You're too heavy!" He screamed out at the lizard, but already knew it wasn't intelligent enough to listen. He didn't have much time to keep yelling at it though. He fell down into the rubble of the rocks as part after part of the shelf of rock started to break under the weight. They sliced at his arms and face, caused him to bleed and he found himself at a very bad disadvantage as a huge rock fell from above him and slammed into the back of his head. Then all was black.

(X)

Zero wasn't completely sure as to what he was doing. He just knew that this dragon could prove a threat if he didn't do something about it soon. He wasn't about to let it kill his friends. If he wouldn't let Hiead do it, he surely wasn't going to let a dragon do it.

**TBC**

It's been awhile, yes. I'm so very sorry for the lack of updating.


	8. The Waking of a Dream

Sorry about such the long inbetween.

Yaoi means **GUY** with **GUY!**

Yuri means GIRL with **GIRL!**

And

Straight means GUY with GIRL! Or GIRL with GUY!

You have been Warned ! Now that we're all on the same wavelength here, let's start the story!

1) thoughts = ' insert thoughts '

2) mind speech is italics

3. (X) is pov change and or time jump

Ch,8: The Waking of a Dream

"Ernest….I'm sorry…I have to leave you. You're…bound to find someone much more worthier than me anyway." Gareas said smiling and pulled Ernest into a gentle embrace.

"Gar"

"Promise me Ernest."

"Promise what?" Ernest asked closing his eyes and relaxing in Gareas' arms. He always felt relaxed and at peace when he was with Gareas.

"Do not ever turn anyone down, thinking I'll come back."

Ernest's eyes snapped open. He looked around sitting up and noticed he was sitting on a rock in the middle of no where. In front of him their backs to him was Yu, Clay ,and his brother Erts. Where was Gareas though? Where was his knight?

"Where is he?" Ernest demanded getting to his feet. He tired to take a step foreword , but instead fell back wincing.

"Prince Ernest!" Yu yelled running over to him quickly. He helped Ernest up letting the prince use him for support and had got him back onto the rock.

"Where is he?" Ernest asked again through gritted teeth. The embrace he had felt in the dream was to real, the words so common from Gareas' mouth. His fears would be put to rest if he could just at least see Gareas.

"My prince…" Yu started frowning, but stopped when Erts put a hand on Yu's shoulder.

"Please. Allow me." He said in a calm voice and he walked over to his brothers side.

"Ernest," he said soothingly getting onto his knees and taking Ernest's hand in his own. "Gareas is gone…he fought off a monster so Clay and I could run…."

Ernest paled and his hand went limp. Gone? Did they mean he left? That he was still gone fighting the monster? Or was he….?

"No! Where is he!" He screamed out tears streaking down his face. "Tell me where he is! I want to see him with my own eyes!"

"Brother there is-"

Erts was cut off by a loud shriek from the dragon.

(X)

Zero flew head on at the dragon stopping only a few inches in front of it. The dragon and Zero ended up in a staring match both of them silent silent. Neither of them refusing to back down, Zero realized he needed to try a different approach.

"Please. We're sorry for waking you up, but…don't hurt my friends. We didn't mean to." Zero said quietly trying to sooth the dragon.

The dragon kept it's gaze on Zero and then looked down to where the frilled lizard was at. Zero followed the dragon's gaze and noticed that Gareas was losing his fight against the giant lizard.

"GAR!" The brunette screamed and wasted no time. He flew down at top speed completely forgetting about the dragon.

"You idiot." Were the only words Hiead muttered before wings of light came out of his back and he flew off after Zero.

(X)

"The Legend cannot be destroyed

Though it can be forgotten

And it can be lost

But it will always live…even

If it's just dormant in another."

"Wha…?"

Gareas slowly opened his eyes staring up at the two people. One a beautiful woman with long blonde hair, Leena, his Leena. The other was a man with spiky blonde hair. He was reminded of Dart, but it wasn't him. This man was much older.

"We're appearing to you, because we feel you must wake up." The man said walking over to Gareas. "If you don't wake up soon, than something bad will happen."

Gareas stood up more or less ignoring the man, his mind more on Leena than anything else. He smiled at her and hugged her.

"I've missed you so much…"

Leena smiled at this wrapping her arms around Gareas tightly and winked at the blonde.

"I told you he would choose me over you." She rested in Gar's embrace resting her head on his shoulders. "I missed you too."

"Am I dead? Do I finally get to rest with you?" Gareas asked, his voice pleading.

"Snap out of it! If you do-"

Gareas cut the man off letting out a loud scream. The dream shattered and Gar started to take notice of what was happening. The frilled Lizard had stabbed him in the stomach with one of it's long claws and was ready to rip his stomach out, when Zero came flying over slamming the lizard head first into the rock.

The frilled Lizard let out a loud growl and turned quickly to face Zero baring its' fangs. It was to late though. As the lizard turned it was met with one thing-

"ATOMIC MIND!" Were the last words the Lizard heard before hundreds of sparks of lightning shot down from the sky and slammed into it taking the lizard's life.

(X)

"What a pity. Thought you said those lizards were strong." A teenage boy with waist long hair, his body hidden in the shadows next to a desk that was also hidden in the shadows said.

"That was a minor lizard. We still have many stronger ones worth sending out." A man sitting at the desk commented.

"I see…."

The man snickered a bit pushing his chair back pulling the boy onto his lap. The boy jumped a bit, but slowly started to relax.

"Do not worry about such things yet. The lizard did as it was ordered to."

The boy nodded closing his eyes and fell asleep.

(X)

"Is that zero?" Clay asked in shock staring at what was in fact Zero.

"I think so…" Erts said with a frown on his face. "What is he wearing?"

Clay shrugged.

(X)

During this whole time the dragon hadn't moved. It was currently trying to decide what to do. Dragons by oath were to obey dragoons. Though, none of these people had it's own spirit and the one that had ordered it to awaken had the dragoon spirit closest to it's own. Which one should it listen to? The one that wanted peace or the one that was demanding it to attack?

Just as it was ready to make up its' mind, a Winglie flew past him and dove down to the human and dragoon. Seeing the Winglie caused the dragon's blood to boil and every second its' hatred grew.

(X)

Zero staggered back a bit not quite sure what was happening to him. He fell back, almost going over the cliff, but Hiead caught him before he took the fall.

"For a hostage. You sure as hell cause me a lot of trouble." Hiead growled pushing Zero to his feet.

Zero went foreword again and was back leaning on Hiead in seconds.

"You!" Gareas started to get to his feet ,but stopped short grabbing his stomach and staying put. He could barely move and was losing blood fast.

The dragon growled loudly. Winglies were the enemies. This Winglie was touching the Dragoon and therefore, he must be taken of.

The dragon flew down growling loudly, claws out ready to strike Hiead down the minute he got close enough.

Zero's eyes widened seeing the dragon swooping down and grabbed Hiead pulling him down onto the ground.

"HEY!" Hiead screamed, but was cut off by the dragon's loud shriek.

Zero frowned looking up at the dragon.

"I thought we'd made a deal…I thought the dragon was going to leave us alone…" Zero said frowning his vision going in and out of focus.

"Zero!" Gareas called out, but he to was in no condition to fight. He was losing blood at an alarming rate, and Zero was all out of energy. They were at Hiead's and the Dragon's mercy.

Hiead closed his eyes and got to his feet letting Zero fall to the rock. He looked up glaring at the dragon and got ready. This dragon no matter how strong was not going to attack Zero. He wasn't going down without a fight.

He thought it over quickly and then started muttering a spell as the dragon started to descend about them again. As it flew down a bright light started glowing from his hands and surrounded the area. A shield went up blocking the dragon's attack.

The dragon let out a loud scream of pain as it slammed head first into the force field.

"I'm not letting you pass..." Hiead whispered and the force field strengthened. The dragon tried harder to break through it, but couldn't even get close. Growling one last time it flew off. Reinforcements weren't to far away.

(X)

Hiead let the barrier drop and he walked over to Zero slowly pulling him to his feet. He looked over to Gareas who was currently on his knees holding his stomach and bleeding.

"If you want help, Donau isn't to far from here." He said without a hint of emotion and picked Zero up.

"Hey! Don't….leave…Zero alone!" He growled trying to attack Hiead, but couldn't even stand up.

"I wouldn't talk. It will kill you faster. I would go get that wound fixed." He threw Zero over his shoulder and vanished.

"GAREAS!" Ernest slide down the side of the cliff and ran over to his knight. 'Gone my ass,' He thought to himself as he ran over to Gareas and kneeled down next to him.

Gareas looked up his vision breaking a bit ,but for a moment it focused on Ernest.

"Ernest…" Gareas stared up at him for a minute.

Ernest smiled at him nodding and took his shirt off. He pushed Gareas back a bit gently and wrapped his wound with his shirt adding pressure.

(X)

"Please, just relax." He said soothingly and pulled Gareas to his feet. "We're going to take you to Donau. You can heal there, okay?" He said his voice filled with fake courage. He had lost so much already, he wasn't losing Gareas too.

"Ernest…"

Erts, Yu, and Clay climbed down after Ernest a few seconds later and together they helped carry Gareas to Donau. They took him to the healers where he was treated and the wound cleaned.

Ernest had to go out and get another new outfit since his was stained with blood. He walked back into the healers house wearing a completely black robe save for the top. That part of the robe that covered his chest was dark blue with odd symbols sewn into it. The sleeves to the robe were a dark blood red that went to his elbows. From his elbows started a black leather gauntlets that went to his hands leaving only his fingers uncovered. Around his waist was a single black belt with a gold sphere like object placed into it. The sphere was cut into 6 different pieces, but all placed into a small plate to be held together. He kept the black boots since the robe seemed to cover them and they were comfortable enough to keep traveling in.

"Prince Ernest you look wonderful…" Yu commented as Ernest walked in and took a seat down next to Gareas' bed.

"Thank you…" Ernest said quietly looking at Gareas' sleeping form. He wasn't quite sure why, but he felt out of place being here. Maybe because it was his fault that Gareas was hurt.

Zero too had gotten hurt, because of Ernest. If neither of them had come with him to Fletz than they'd be fine.

What was done was done though. And because of it, Zero was kidnapped and Gareas was in a near death state.

Still, somewhere in the back of his mind, Ernest had thought something was different about the way Gareas had called out his name. It could have been his imagination, but he had thought he'd called it out like one would a friend, not a lover.

Ernest let out a small sigh and rested his hands on his lap. Why did it hurt so much to think he almost lost Gareas, when all Gareas seemed to do was play mind games with him?

"Perhaps love is stronger than anything else…" Ernest whispered.

Yu frowned taking this as his cue to leave and walked out of the healers.

(X)

Erts sighed resting against Clay in the small cliff like area that over looked the sea. There were hundreds of different types of flowers all over this area, and a nice white balcony that you could look out over to see the boats that were lined up at the docks.

"Clay…" Erts asked closing his eyes and resting completely against his boyfriend.

"Hmm?" Clay asked. He had taken notice that Erts had been very stressed lately. He shifted a bit pulling Erts onto his lap and wrapped his arms around Erts' waist protectively.

"I was just wondering…do you think Zero's okay with that guy?"

Clay thought for a moment then nodded.

"Actually. He's probably more than okay. I would be more worried about the state of Hiead's sanity rather than Zero's health." Clay said nodding again.

Erts laughed at that and snuggled up closer to Clay. This was real. This place held no weird spells around it. Somehow in the middle of a desert, the city of Donau had kept all of it's greenery.

"I'm glad we can finally relax a bit…" Erts said sighing happily.

"Me too." Clay replied.

(X)

Hiead watched as Zero lied on the ground shivering badly. He knew the desert got extremely cold during the night, and it was just about sunrise, but he had the feeling that while all of Zero's energy had been drained from his forced dragoon transformation, that his immune system had abandoned him.

Zero's whole body shook and he let out a loud sneeze. He looked around sitting up a bit and rubbing his eyes. His gaze fell on Hiead and stayed there.

Hiead stared back cursing his luck that the human had gotten sick. He stood up and walked away from Zero heading towards some path.

"H, heachoo! Gah!" Zero winced rubbing his nose. "Darnit!" Zero screamed and realizing he was freezing started rubbing his arms and legs. "Don't leave me here! Damn you!" He screamed sneezing again.

Hiead came back a few minutes later having ignored all out of Zero's complaints and laid some wood down onto the ground.

"Hey….th, that's not going to work…" Zero said still shivering. For some strange reason he felt extremely cold.

Hiead looked up glaring at him.

"Why not?" He asked bluntly.

"I, I'm too cold. I n, need a b, blanket….o, or s, something." He said between shivers and stood up trying to warm himself up.

"A blanket?" He asked folding his arms across his chest. "Why the hell do you need a blanket when I'm getting you a fire?"

"D, Damnit Hiead! Unlike you, I, I'm human. And I, it's really, really c, c, cold!" He got out looking around. "Th, there's snow here anyway! W, why d, did you bring us h, here of all places!" he demanded looking around.

Hiead thought for a moment then nodded.

"Come on. I have an idea." He picked up the wood he'd collected and headed to a small cave like structure that was big enough for the both of them and a fire to be set up, no wind to hit them, and the snow wouldn't be falling on them either.

Zero quickly followed wanting to get out of the cold as fast as he could. Even though they were there in a matter of minutes, it still wasn't soon enough for him. He ran into the cave at top speed jumping around trying to get his blood to flow and then all of a sudden stopped and sat down.

Hiead stared at him and lit the fire.

"You mean if I light a fire you shut down?"

Zero stared at him through half closed lids. He'd already used up all his energy trying to get some warmth back into his body. That wasn't working though. He got in front of the fire as close as he could without getting to close to the entrance of the cave or getting burned and sat there waiting for his body to warm up.

Hiead noticed quickly that Zero seemed to be losing himself. He noticed also that Zero seemed to be showing signs of freezing to death in his sleep. He couldn't have that though. He had bigger plans for Zero now that he knew the boy was a Dragoon.

He walked over to Zero and just as Zero started drifting off into a slumber that had killed so many others, he sat down and wrapped his arms around Zero pulling him over to himself. He muttered a few words and the flames in the fire crawled out of it and came up surrounding Zero as if they were his clothes.

Slowly, Hiead felt Zero's body begin to warm and though Zero was no doubt still sick, he at least had kept him alive. Hiead too now, was able to fine some peace in sleep while the flames and his magic did all the work.

(X)

Yu sighed walking through the small city of Donau. The city of flowers. This city looked more like a garden than anything else. Completely green, all different types of flowers with all sorts of colors everywhere. A beautiful place where kids could be raised in peace.

And yet, as Yu walked down the streets looking from one flower garden to the next, he couldn't help but feel left out. He wanted badly to be with Prince Ernest, but knew it would never happen. Not now. Not with Gareas in the picture.

So what could he do now? Where would his life take him? For the first time then in a week, he was able to think about his little sister and the princess as well. The women had of course, gotten away safely, but still. Yu wondered if they were fairing alright. Did they even know that the prince was still alive?

Yu's train of thought was cut off as he slammed into someone and they both hit the ground.

"Sorry!" A familiar voice called out. Yu opened his eyes and stared at the boy on the ground in front of him. It was the same one he'd ran into just like this at the castle. "Oh hey. I saw you at Fletz castle." He said grinning and got to his feet.

Yu nodded getting to his own feet and started dusting himself off.

"I ran into you. Sorry." Yu said and started to walk off down another path.

"Hey…you know. Running into each other once is common, but twice? In two different cities. It's a sign." The boy said grinning. "We're destined to meet."

Yu rolled his eyes and kept on walking completely ignoring the boys comment.

The boy pouted and ran after him.

"Hey wait up! You're a knight right? What happen to the castle at Fletz anyway?"

Yu stopped dead in his tracks his eyes widening. He unsheathed his blade and turned to look at the boy running over to him.

TBC


	9. Wounds of the heart

Yaoi means **GUY** with **GUY!**

Yuri means **GIRL** with **GIRL!**

And

Straight means GUY with GIRL! Or GIRL with GUY!

You have been Warned ! Now that we're all on the same wavelength here, let's start the story!

1) thoughts = ' insert thoughts '

mind speech will be italics

(X) pov change and or time jump

disclaimer: I only own the original characters

Ch,9: Wounds of the heart

"H, Hiead?" Zero slowly opened his eyes and looked around. Hiead was no where to be seen. Frowning he got to his knees and was about to stand up when he stopped instantly. There seemed to be a force field just a bit higher then his waist if he stood up, around him keeping in all the nice warm air. "Great…he left me here. Gar always said I'd die alone!" Zero screamed wrapping his arms around his legs sneezing.

"Oh shut up." Hiead walked into the cave brushing the snow off the top of his hair. "I went to get you something to eat." He pulled out some wrapped up meat. He dropped it onto Zero's lap and sat down next to him.

"Oh wow!" Zero grabbed the meat quickly and took a bite. "Mmm. T, this is really good, thanks!" Zero ate most if it quickly glad to have something in his stomach. "That was great! What was it?" He asked happily. He had never had such good tasting meat before.

"None of your business." Hiead answered with a smirk and folded his arms across his chest.

"Don't be a jerk! It was good, I just wanted to know what it was so I could have some later, but no you-"

Hiead clasped a hand over Zero's mouth to shut him up. He'd never heard of a boy talking so much! Didn't he have to breath! Or at least relax his jaw?

Zero pouted at him and went silent. The simple little pout though made something click in Hiead.

"M, my village…." He said his hand dropping to his side.

Zero looked up at him.

"Huh?"

"My village…I got the meat from there…it's deer meat…"

"Really? You must have some good cooks there! I've never tasted deer meat this good! Want some?" Zero held up what was left of it.

"Already had some."

Zero shrugged and finished up the rest, a big smile on his face.

"Thanks again…hey wow. My cold is gone!"

Hiead rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"It has healing properties."

Zero grinned happily.

"Great! We'll be out of here in no time!"

Hiead pulled a blanket out from under his cloak and threw it at him.

"Look. There's a huge snow storm going on right now. You're not going anywhere."

"You went out!" Zero said pouting again hoping it'd work.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm not human." The Winglie replied bluntly. How could this kid want to venture out so quickly after just being sick? He knew it'd only been a minor cold, but all the same it could come back and be worse the second time around.

"Well I have that lightning power." The brunette stated proudly. "I think I'll be fine!"

"And I think you need to shut up." Hiead turned his back to Zero.

Zero growled clenching his fist and tackled him.

"What'd you say! I'LL BEAT YOU!"

"You beat me! Ha!" Hiead flipped over slamming Zero's head into the rock. He let out a loud groan and collapsed instantly onto the ground.

Hiead stared at him for a few minutes. He hadn't meant to knock zero out, just get him onto his back so he couldn't do any real damage, like transform into a dragoon.

Sighing he got off the small boy and sat him up. He grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around Zero.

"I told you to shut up…" He ran a hand through some of Zero's hair and pulled it back quickly in horror staring at the blood on it. "Shit." He grabbed Zero quickly letting the force field and fire die and ran out into the snow towards his village.

(X)

"Don't move!" Was the only warning Rioroute got as Yu pulled out his spear and threw it inches from his arm. There was a soft grunt and a smaller version of the lizard that Gareas had been fighting collapsed to the ground.

Rio's eyes widened in shock and he fell to his knees.

"YOU KILLED MY PET!" He screamed in horror picking up the dead frilled lizard. "My poor poor pet!"

Yu stared at him now in his own state of shock.

"A pet..? You're keeping a frilled lizard as a pet!"

"Rocky speak to me!" Rio cried rocking back and forth and holding it close. "I can't believe you killed Rocky…what'd he ever do to you!" Rio asked looking up at Yu.

Yu frowned letting his arm fall to his side slowly.

"I didn't know…frilled lizards are very dangerous…and…I didn't know anyone kept them as pets…"

"Dangerous?" Rio asked glaring at him. "They barely know how to cut a piece of grass! A frilled lizard being really strong is just a rumor! A fake rumor!" He hugged the lizard more sobbing. "I can't believe it…I've had him for six years now and you just murdered him like ….." His voice trailed off and he fell into his own trance of grief.

Yu frowned walking over to Rioroute slowly. He would of never killed the thing if he'd of known that it was this boy's pet. He got to his knees staring at the boy and his pet and watched them for awhile.

(X)

Ernest frowned and closed his eyes. All the memories came rushing back to him again. The fight, Zero, the dragon, Gareas, everything.

"Why did it have to be you? Why not me?" He asked trying to keep his emotions under control. "I'll do anything…as long as he's okay…." Ernest smiled a bit at the sleeping form and stroked Gareas' face gently.

(X)

"I just noticed something." Erts said looking up at his lover in a bit of shock.

"What's that?"

"Every town we've been in so far, someone's gotten hurt or sick and put into the healers."

Clay was silent for a bit blinking.

"You're right. I wonder how we pulled that off."

"I hope we're not next." Erts wrapped his arms around Clay tightly and closed his eyes.

"I'm sure we're not. Ernest or Zero will end up in one again before us." Clay tired to reassure his lover, but knew he couldn't promise anything. This really was starting to become a problem.

(X)

"….master?" The boy with waist long hair said. He was a bit in the light now, and you could tell his hair was as silver as Hiead's was.

"Yoarashi, what are you doing?"

Yoarashi turned around and looked over to his master. He smiled a bit and walked over to him.

"There you are master. I was wondering when you planned on having me go out."

Yoarashi's master thought for a moment. He looked to his most favored slave boy and couldn't help ,but smile. The boy was only a bit shorter than him, long beautiful silverish purple hair -a trademark of his race- and pinkish purple eyes.

"Why do you wish to leave so soon?" He asked gently stroking Yoarashi's left cheek. He was very fond of the boy and did not wish to see him go anytime soon even if there plan did call for it.

"…I want to go and see what I've been missing…and to help you…" He replied hugging his master tightly. "I want to prove to you, that I can do more than I have done in the past few years."

Yoarashi's master smiled and kissed him on top of the head.

"Alright my dear. Go and have your fun. If you get into any problems though, come to me. I will help you."

Yoarashi nodded quickly and ran off. He'd prove to his master he was useful no matter what.

(X)

"You stupid moron." Hiead sighed stroking Zero's hair gently. He currently had Zero on a bed in his old house with some healing potions next to him. He'd given the boy some already and the wound had healed, but he was still out cold.

Zero frowned a bit in his sleep and turned over, his back facing Hiead now.

Hiead glared at him and gave up trying to mess with his hair. He leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. What was he to do now? Where did he go from here? He had two pieces of the puzzle, but someone was hiding the third piece.

"Guess I go straight for the fourth…" He snickered a bit and closed his eyes relaxing. "All I have to do…is get the fourth piece…then I'll go on to find the third one. It's pretty simple I guess if you just think things through…I guess I was just a bit over stressed…."

"DUH!"

Hiead looked up in shock just as his chair fell back and slammed into the floor. He looked up wide eyed at Zero was currently sitting on him smirking.

"Got you." He said triumphantly. He grinned more when he looked down at Hiead. "You've been pinned. So now what?"

Hiead stared at him a bit longer his gaze somehow falling into Zero's own. He tried to pull away ,but found he couldn't. Zero's eyes were too deep, his gaze too strong.

"Idiot…." He was going to close his own eyes ,but found he couldn't do that either.

"Hiead…?" Zero asked staring at him. "Are you okay…?" He poked him and slipped off Hiead's knees fell onto his waist.

Hiead's eyes closed and he went silent trying to keep his breath even. Zero was way too close. And it didn't help with that spell either.

"Get….off of me…" He said trying with all his strength not to betray his emotions and show them. "Now…."

Zero glared at him and got right into his face.

"Surrender." He demanded folding his arms across his chest.

"…."

"Hiead…you're starting to scare me…."

Hiead forced his arms behind his head and refused to move or say anything. He knew if he tried to say anything, he'd end up saying something he really didn't want to.

"Hiead….Damnit say something!" He screamed starting to shake him.

Hiead let out a low growl and shoved Zero off of him quickly. He got to his knees so Zero couldn't pin him again like that , his eyes flashing.

"Never do that again." He glared at Zero promising him death if he ever pinned him on his back like that again. "Never."

Zero nodded slowly crawling back onto the bed. He'd never seen anyone get that angry before, not even Gareas and that was saying something. He got under the blankets and stayed there, his back to Hiead once again.

Hiead let out a small and shaky breath and slowly got to his feet. He walked out of the room and closed the door behind himself. The minute he heard the click of the door closing he slide to the ground closing his eyes tightly.

"Damnit…I can't fall for him…I can't. It's just the spell….nothing more…just a spell…"

(X)

Zero listened in the bed staring up at the ceiling. He wondered what Hiead was talking about, but had a good idea that he probably shouldn't get on top of Hiead again. He acted way to strange when he did.

(X)

"Leena…no…don't go…" Ernest looked up at Gareas' sleeping form frowning. Who was Leena? "Leena…thanks…" Gareas started laughing in his sleep.

Ernest death glared him. Leena was obviously a girl. He stood up and walked out of the healers house. He'd beat Gareas up later. He headed down one of the many turning roads surrounded by flowers. 'Does that mean…that Gareas is in love with someone else?' he asked himself frowning. He closed his eyes walking down the path not really wanting to believe it. If Gareas really was in love with someone else, why hadn't he just told him in the first place? Why wait until he started falling for him?

He let out another long sign.

"I guess that's just the way Gareas is…." He stopped and looked up seeing a figure standing before him. Long black hair, blue highlights in it when the sun hit it. He seemed to be about as tall as Ernest and was wearing a long blue and red robe. He noticed he was being looked at and looked up staring at Ernest.

"Yes?" He asked gently a bit curious as to why this boy was staring at him.

"S, sorry.." Ernest stuttered a bit. "I just…" His voice trailed off. There was no way to explain why he'd been looking at him without saying the real reason. He thought he was good looking.

The teen smiled at him and patted the rock next to him.

"I'm Kira what's your name?" He asked coyly.

Ernest blushed deeply and took the seat next to the boy.

"I'm Ernest….you do know I'm a guy right?" He asked before getting his hopes up. How many times had his hopes been crushed because people thought he was a girl a first.

"I know." Kira smiled brightly at him. "Why are you all alone though?" He asked staring at him. This didn't seem like the type of person to ever be alone.

"Well…I'm not really alone. I'm traveling with a group of other people…,but they're all busy right now…"

"Oh…that's to bad…" Kira answered smiling up at him a bit. "That doesn't mean we can't have fun though, right?"

Ernest nodded happily.

"Yes, that's right."

(X)

"I said I was sorry!" Yu screamed running after Rioroute.

"You killed him! Rocky didn't stand a chance!" The blonde cried still running. Both passed Ernest at top speed. Yu noticing Ernest was there stopped in mid run, bowed, said "Ernest" since said boy didn't want anyone else to know he was the prince if he could help it, and then went on running after the blonde.

"…I take it you know them..?" Kira asked cautiously watching the other two boys run off down the road.

"Sadly…" Ernest replied chibi crying. "I wonder sometimes why I keep company like that."

This caused Kira to laugh. Ernest turned to look at the boy and then couldn't help, but also start to laugh himself. He was starting to see Kira as a friend. Perhaps someone that could understand him a bit no matter what. Maybe even take the pain away from his heart that Gareas seemed to keep throwing at him.

(X)

"…Hey Hiead…?" Zero asked walking out of the room. Hiead had been ignoring him since their little incident. He didn't want them to not be friends though. He really enjoyed being around Hiead, even if the guy was a bastard most of the time.

"What?" The Winglie asked coldly glaring up at the younger boy. Zero went silent and took in a deep breath before getting the nerve to talk again.

"Listen….about this morning…"

"Don't ever mention that again." Hiead growled walking over to the side of his kitchen where he was finishing up the cooking. No one could be able to know what was going on. No one could know that he had almost started to fall for Zero. A human! Well…almost. He reminded himself with a smirk.

"Okay…sure.." Zero sat down at the table. "I just wanted to say sorry…I didn't mean for anything to go wrong…"

Ignoring him, the silver haired boy put the food down on the table.

"Shut up and eat." Was all that he would say.

Zero nodded grabbing a spoon and started eating the soup. He had to admit, the boy may have a terrible attitude…,but his food was pretty edible.

(X)

The Earth Dragon landed down gently on the ground near a large lake. It looked around and let out a loud screech.

Nothing happened for a few minutes, but as time passed another dragon emerged from the water. It looked at the Earth Dragon curiously wondering what it was doing out of its' own territory.

The dragon began to explain to it's ally what was going on and what it had seen. Enraged the Water Dragon growled and shot out a bean of ice into the air. How dare a Winglie still be around! And for it to attack a Dragoon! He growled again and shot more ice out. Revenge was the only thing in its' mind.

"Finally." Yoarashi muttered with a smile. He was currently sitting on the rocks near the water where the Dragons had exchanged their information. "This should get really interesting now…with all the dragons and dragoons coming back into play….the birth giver is already here…..all that's left is the Winglies to give up peace." He laughed a bit and vanished.

**TBC**

Hmm…this chapter was a bit interesting…


	10. Parting Paths

This story will be a Yaoi.

Yaoi means **GUY** with **GUY!**

Yuri means **GIRL** with **GIRL!**

And

Straight means GUY with GIRL! Or GIRL with GUY!

You have been Warned ! Now that we're all on the same wavelength here, let's start the story!

1) thoughts = ' insert thoughts '

2) italics is mind speech

The **Flash **are what I'm putting to show that Ernest is reading Gareas' mind in this one and when it ends it'll say **End Mind Reading**.

(X) is pov and or time jump

Ch,10: Parting Paths

"Hiead…?"

Said boy looked away from the window sill he was currently sitting on, looking out to the many stars in the sky. He let his gaze full upon Zero, the stupid human boy that seemed to fill almost every image in his mind.

"What?"

The brunette thought for a moment not completely sure as to how to address the problem. He closed his eyes trying to think of what he could possibly say, but he wasn't one for thinking so it didn't last too long.

"Hiead, I felt something."

"….And?"

"What do you mean and?" Zero growled tempted to attack Hiead with the blanket he currently had wrapped around himself. "Look you idiot I'm serious! There's something weird going on!"

"And what am I supposed to do about it?" Hiead asked his voice a lot louder than he'd of wished it.

Zero looked away taking a few steps back frowning. He didn't want to get into a fight, not right now.

"I sensed something…." 'I don't want to say this, but no one else is around to talk about it.' He thought to himself swallowing his pride. "I'm scared. Something woke up, there's a new power moving around…." With that said he slumped onto the floor, back against wall.

The silver haired boy studied him curiously though you wouldn't know that by looking at him. Not a hint of the emotion ever crossed his features. Without saying a word he got down from the window sill and closed the distance between them.

"Get up." He demanded his voice cold and sending a shiver down Zero's back. Zero couldn't find the words to protest though he wanted to and did as he was told. The minute he was on his feet Hiead roughly grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him back into the room he had just walked out of.

"You make me sick." Hiead growled slamming the door shut with his foot. He kept pushing Zero though until the boy was pushed onto his back on the bed. "Do you feel it Zero?" Hiead asked. "Do you feel the magic, the power and its strength? It's suffocating isn't it? Hard to move?" He asked his voice now taunting.

Zero's eyes widened, but he nodded slowly. The longer he was here, the harder it seemed to even breath.

"That's good." The Winglie answered with a smirk. "What you feel is the power of the Winglies. There magic is beyond that of any dragon!" He ended up screaming out the last part. He took a few deep breaths trying to regain some control over himself. He closed his eyes and slowly let go of Zero.

Zero stayed in place, held by fear then noticed that Hiead was shaking.

"Hi-"

"Shut up!" Growling Hiead walked out of the room not saying another word.

Zero watched him not completely sure as to what just happened. He wondered though if there was more to the boy than he realized.

(X)

"And then I met Kira here." Ernest finished Kira's story with a smile. Everyone else, including Gareas, sat around a table at the local tavern eating dinner. And all of them, but Gar, seemed interested in hearing the story.

"So you're a sorcerer." Clay said pushing his glasses up. "And a red dragon discipline is a pretty big feat, I can't believe you've made it that far."

A smile crossed Kira's face. He'd been worried that due to the professions he'd chosen, he'd once again be shunned.

"Thank you. Not many people appreciate the work I've done."

"So, where do you work? And for who?" Clay went on ignoring the nervous glances he was getting from everyone else.

"Clay!" Erts finally cut in glaring at his lover. This only gained a laugh from Kira though.

"It's alright. This question I am quite used to. I work for Queen Teela and her four sacred sisters." He answered honestly.

"WHAT?" Was the word that echoed from everyone's mouth causing more than a few people to turn around and stare.

"Is it really that shocking?" He asked blinking a bit and placing the fork in his hand down on the table.

"So you know who I am?" Ernest asked sighing a bit. He had hoped he'd finally found someone who liked him for who he truly was, not for his title.

"You mean being a prince? Yes, I am aware of you and your brother's title. Though what do titles really mean?" The smile was back on Ernest's face before he even finished and then….

"Only among other high ranking people. That rule doesn't count for commoners." Gareas said. And the smile was gone.

"Gar!" Yu growled eyes flashing. Gareas ignored him though. The small neutral agreement they had, had in the valley of corrupted gravity was gone.

"Kira! By any chance do you know how Fletz is doing?" Erts asked trying to change the subject. They had already had enough problems with Yu and Gareas fighting on the way there.

"I think you have it wrong Gareas." Kira answered slowly making sure he answered properly. "Commoners easily relate to other commoners and therefore rarely use any titles. However…a higher ranked person or a royal man or woman usually demand their titles to be used to show just how better they are then others…"

A awkward silence fell over the table. Ernest quickly realized that Gareas and Kira would never get along.

"Well then, that proves my point doesn't it sacred brother Kira?" Gareas asked growling.

"You know." Ernest said standing up glaring at Gar. "What right do you have to become angered, because of my friend, when you call out for some woman in your sleep!" He growled walking out of the tavern.

Gareas said nothing, but obviously seemed extremely embarrassed. He hadn't even known he'd called out someone's name. Kira got up and walked out of the tavern though cutting Gar's thoughts off and caused him to growl more. He got up and followed after Kira.

This in turn caused Yu to stand up and go after and then Erts followed him as well.

Rio and Clay sat there alone, at the table awkwardly looking at all the plates and chairs then to each other.

"So…." Rio started, but Clay got to his feet sighing.

"Let's go make sure no one kills anyone." He said walking out. A sob escaped Rio's throat at that and he slowly got to his feet following Clay.

"Rocky…."

"Ernest!" Gareas screamed out looking around. There were six different ways he could of went and even though Gar had been right behind him, he'd somehow lost him. He heard a sound, some rocks moving, and looked around again instantly. "Ernest?" He kept his eyes scanning and then got a glimpse of Ernest walking pass an ally way. "Ernest!" He screamed dashing down the way and grabbed Ernest by the wrist causing him to freeze in his tracks.

**Flash**

The village seemed to be going up in flames everywhere. Smoke, flames, screams. No matter where you looked this is all you could see. Gareas was there, a lot younger than he was now and was being held by a much younger Dabas.

"No! Father!" Gar tried to pull away from Dabas as he held the child back from running into the flames.

**Flash**

"My name's Zero! My dad is Dart so don't forget it!" A younger Zero said with a grin pointing to himself.

A young teen Gareas just sat there on his bed and rolled his eyes.

"Zero…" Dark snickered shaking his head. "Don't stand behind my title. Become strong and make your own."

"Nice quote." Gar said with a smirk.

**Flash**

Gareas now in his current age was holding a beautiful woman with long blonde hair. She was wearing a light blue dress and seemed to be very pale.

"Leena…" Gareas fell to his knees holding the woman in his arms. "Please no…Don't die on me! I need you…..LEENA!"

**End Mind Thoughts**

Ernest stared at Gar in shock. Leena was dead? Now he felt horrible. He had no doubt reopened closed wounds and with Kira rubbed salt into them...

"Gareas…"

"Look. I can understand why you got mad at me about dinner, but you know nothing about Leena." Gar growled clenching his fist. "I loved her more than anything. She was the only thing that kept me going when I was a kid. So go ahead, hate me, but don't you dare ever use Leena's name in any way that will blemish her good memory in my mind or anyone else's." With that said he turned his back to Ernest and walked off.

Ernest watched Gareas walk away in shock. He had been jealous of a dead woman and even worse. Instead of just confronting Gar about it, he'd jumped to conclusions and tried to make her look like a bad guy.

"I'm so sorry…" He whispered looking away his eyes falling on some flowers near him. He knew Gareas couldn't hear him though. "The city of flowers…always so beautiful…"

(X)

The boy smiled jumping off the roof of a house near by. His dark red eyes locked onto Gareas, dark blonde hair pushed back by the wind. He walked towards Gar without hesitation, a short black top on that stopped short over his chest clearly showing all his muscles including his belly button. His pants were also black that started a bit below the waist, his black boots seemingly invisible looking as if they were really just part of his pants.

"It's a pain isn't it?" The boy asked a hint of laughter in his voice.

Gareas stopped and turned around to regard the boy. He could of only been a bit taller than Zero, yet the boys eyes showed that he was much older than said boy.

"What do you want?"

"What do I want?" The boy echoed. "You're the one who asked for something. You wanted Leena back. In order to do so, you had to give up something in return, that was Ernest." He snickered and walked closer to Gar. "You have passed. You wish Leena to be brought back, come with me. I will in turn take you to someone who can grant your wish."

Gareas stood there in shock. Who was this kid? More importantly, could he really get Leena back? He figured even if the kid couldn't, he really had nothing better else to do and decided to play along with things at least for a little while.

"Tell me. What must I do?" The boys eyes lit up and a smirk crossed his face.

"Come with me human. We shall give you back what's yours."

(X)

Yu was the first to find Ernest after his encounter with Gareas. He noticed quickly from the way Ernest was kneeling down next to some flowers that something was wrong.

"My lord?" Ernest made no move to answer and thus Yu walked over to him. Slowly, gently lying a hand down on his shoulders. "Prince Er-"

"Yu…am I really that awful?" Ernest asked without turning around. He was shaking now Yu noticed, and his voice seemed to show that he was near tears.

"My lord I could never ask for a better person to serve."

"I don't mean like that…" The blonde replied turning around from the flowers and looking up at his one true friend. "I mean…how could I….the girl…Yu she's dead…I went and tried to make him jealous…and she's dead.." his voice trailed off and he lowered his head trying to hide his tears.

Yu frowned at this swearing to kill Gareas later and wrapped his arms around him.

"You're not evil….you just didn't know…"

Ernest closed his eyes trying to find comfort in Yu's words. When he had been younger and his powers more out of control, most kids considered him nothing ,but a demon. He wasn't completely sure as to why they did, but they had. The only person he'd ever been able to be "normal" around was Yu.

"You're the only person to think that…"

"No…Erts loves you and would never think ill of you in any way."

Ernest sighed closing his eyes ,but he couldn't relax. He was too far gone he realized. He was quickly spiraling down into the blackness of his heart, and he knew he'd be there for awhile. Once he hit that spot, he had a hard time getting out.

"…brother?" Erts voice cut in through the darkness and caused both Yu and Ernest to look up at him. Without really thinking, Erts walked over to Ernest and got to his own knees hugging him. "Brother please…there's nothing wrong with either of us…we're just different…that's all."

"What if we are demons?" Ernest asked seriously.

"If we were. Then so was father."

They all fell silent and sighed. Looking to the sky they saw a shooting star, but none of them made a wish. To them at this moment, there seemed no point. They felt utterly hopeless as though they had no chance at achieving anything, but more problems.

(X)

The rest of that night Zero stayed up staring at the ceiling of the room. From the other room across from him he heard the loud noises of what must have been Hiead breaking or hitting things. He turned over in the bed closing his eyes and trying to get the image of Hiead holding him by the shoulders and pushing him down onto the bed out of his mind. For some reason, he hadn't wanted it to stop there. He'd wanted Hiead to keep going, to maybe even get on top of him and …hit him? He hoped.

'I Can't be thinking like this,' Zero mentally scolded himself. What would the others think if he came back with someone like Hiead as a boyfriend? No he had to get over him and quick. Besides, what reason did he really have to like the insane guy anyway? No one in their right mind would, but of course, Zero was no where near his right mind.

'I Can't even sleep,' He mentally screamed now putting the pillow over his head. 'Why me?' He sighed again and stood up. Maybe if he got yelled at by Hiead again, not only would he get over him, but maybe he'd get lucky enough for Hiead to throw something at him and knock him out. Grinning like the idiot he was, he walked out of the room and headed across the hall.

Without saying a word or even knocking, Zero opened the door and walked in only to stop dead in his tracks. Hiead lied on the ground covered in blood, his clothes slashed, his breath coming in gasps. The window had been thrown open, and a man in a black cloak stood there holding a glowing blue sphere in his hand.

"Zero….get it!" Hiead begged through gritted teeth. Without thinking, Zero charged at the man, but before he even got close he was gone.

Zero turned around slowly looking to Hiead and ran over to him.

"Are you okay?" He asked getting to his knees and helping Hiead up. Hiead instinctively tried to pull away, but he was to weak from the lost of blood and fell foreword into Zero's outstretched arms. "Hiead…"

"I hate you…" The silver haired boy whispered and finally passed out. Wincing at the words, Zero got to his feet pulling Hiead up with him.

"Okay. You saved me, time for me to repay the favor." He lied Hiead down on his bed and walked out looking for some type of healing potions or bandages. He found some healing fog in one of the drawers Hiead had and took it out quickly running over to the boy. He took off the lid of the bottle and propped Hiead up opening his mouth and poured the liquid into his mouth. "Come on, drink." He said hoping that the Winglie wouldn't choke.

A few minutes passed, but the liquid was gone as was all of Hiead's wounds.

Zero let out a sigh of relief and smiled down at the boy. It was a good thing he couldn't sleep, or Hiead may of already been dead. Now though wasn't the time to think of that. Now was the time for Zero to get up and go through every part of the boy's house until he found out why the heck he was the way he was, and how to get out of this city.

"This should be fun."

**TBC**

Yes, it took forever but I finally did it. I updated!


	11. Falling

This story will be a Yaoi.

**Yaoi means GUY with GUY!**

**Yuri means GIRL with GIRL!**

And

**Straight means GUY with GIRL! Or GIRL with GUY!  
**

You have been **Warned** ! Now that we're all on the same wavelength here, let's start the story!

1) thoughts = 'insert thoughts'

2) mind speech is italics

Disclaimer: Okay! I OWN NOTHING, but original characters

Chapter, 11: Falling

Zero sighed and looked down at Hiead's sleeping figure. He'd gone through all of Hiead's house looking for something, anything as a clue to where he could go or get free. He wanted to be back with Gareas and Clay and Erts. He wanted to fight with his friends it didn't matter if he lost, as long as he was with them. He wanted to tease Gar about Ernest and provoke Yu into fighting random people in order to "protect" the princes.

Still though…he couldn't deny his thoughts about the silver haired boy either. He had found nothing in his house…but there was one thing he did want…

Before he could really think about what he was doing, Zero lied down next to Hiead on his bed. He took the blanket he'd been wrapped up in early that morning and put it over himself and the Winglie. Smiling his back facing Hiead, he slowly fell asleep.

(X)

"And what do I get if this wish isn't granted by your "master"" Gareas asked a bit tauntingly. He had indeed agreed to follow the boy, but had never truly believed that he could actually bring his Leena back from the dead.

_I've got the boy_. Rai said through mind speech to his master.

_He's willing to cooperate then?_

_Yes._

_And the other spy?_ Rai's master asked suspiciously.

_In place._

_Good work. Leave him at the decided spot and come back to me. I've other matters for you to take care of._

_Yes Master._ Rai shut the link between them and turned back to Gareas.

"Don't hold us up." He warned the green haired boy.

Gareas growled at that, but said nothing. He really wanted to check this whole thing out and he followed on without a complaint.

(X)

"You're sure you're alright?" Yu asked Ernest protectively.

"Yes…I'll be fine." The prince tried to reassure Yu ,but he had a feeling he knew he'd achieve no such thing. Yu knew him far too well to be so easily convinced. "Where's Erts anyway." He asked trying to change the subject.

"He and Clay went out to try and find Kira…"

Ernest's eyes widened and he looked at Yu quickly.

"Rioroute!"

"What?" Yu asked frowning a bit.

"No! You brought a boy Rioroute with you to dinner! What happened to him?"

Yu seemed to go into a daze and then shrugged.

"I've no idea."

Frowning Ernest got to his feet and shoved Yu gently towards the door.

"Go. I can tell you like him." He said smiling. "Go and get Rio. I won't hold it against you at all."

Yu seemed to think it over for a few minutes and finally nodded. He bowed deeply and walked off out of the room.

'Now I can finally be alone…' Ernest thought to himself as he heard the door click shut behind Yu. Sighing he took his gaze away from the window and back to the bed that was in his room. On it was the things Gareas had left behind, and a book he'd recently begun to read.

He let out another sigh and walked over to the bed picking up one of Gareas' things. A small knife that he'd had in his boot. He looked over it, it seemed to have some kind of odd markings on it, no doubt from the antique shop his friend Dabas had run.

He found a frown crossing his face at this and took the knife and other things that he had on the bed and placed it on a small table next to the bed. He took the book and lied down opening it to the page he'd been on last.

"And as the darkness begins to flow through the heart, because thou's destiny has turned it's back against thee, beware the ones you know best, for they are your biggest weakness." Ernest read shaking his head. He went on reading for a few hours until he finally fell asleep still holding onto the book, the page he was on;

"And the vast darkness that creeps into your own heart, do not fear it. For as you turn your back on the light, those around you shall see just how bright it truly is. And the farther you walk towards the darkness, the closer to the light they will become."

(X)

Hiead sat up wearily. His head hurt, his chest and arm hurt the more though. He tried to remember all that had happened and then froze. He remembered. Growling he slammed his fist into the table next to his bed destroying it on impact.

"DAMNIT!" He screamed out growling all the louder. The mirror, the moon mirror had been taken from him! Some guy had come into his house, defeated him as though he was nothing, and took one of his most prized possessions.

"Shut up…" Zero groaned turning onto his side hearing Hiead scream.

Hiead froze and slowly turned his head to where he'd heard the voice. Sitting there in shock, he saw Zero, lying comfortably next to him. He regarded the boy for a few moments before actually doing anything.

There he was. The human…no the dragoon he'd saved not to long ago, in his bed, comfortable. He seemed to be sleeping…and looking extremely cute and innocent…

He started growling again twitching and closed his eyes bringing his fist up. He slammed his fist into the top of Zero's head causing him to fall off the bed.

"HEY!" Zero screamed getting to his knees and death glaring Hiead. "What the hell was that for!" He demanded rubbing his head.

"What the hell do you think?" Hiead growled getting to his feet and off the bed. "I wake up finding something like you beside me! Of course I'm going to freak out!"

Zero winced again at the words grabbing the blanket and wrapping himself up in it. He sat there, his back against the bed, his head down.

"Sorry…" Zero whispered his gaze still on the floor.

Hiead almost sat down next to him and wrapped him in his arms. He shook his head though, reminding himself that it was just a spell and nothing more and walked out of the room saying nothing to Zero.

Zero started shaking a bit and got to his feet. He figured he probably shouldn't stay in Hiead's room and went back to his own.

A few hours later they were back on the road again. Zero had wanted to check out the Winglie city in full, but had decided against it. He wasn't in the mood for pissing Hiead off anymore than he already was. For some reason he kept wanting to try and please Hiead. He figured by being silent and not doing anything, but what Hiead asked him to do, they'd be on good terms.

"Did that guy cut your voice cords?" Hiead finally asked. They'd left the house, the village, and then went on together for a few hours, Zero not saying a word. He merely nodded when Hiead asked him something, shook his head, or shrugged. Again, Zero just shrugged at Hiead's question.

"Zero!" Hiead growled narrowing his eyes. "Answer me or I'll leave you here."

"You know you won't." Zero answered finally walking pass Hiead. "You need me."

Still growling Hiead matched his pace.

"Why do you think that?"

"I don't know…" Zero said frowning a bit. "But you do for something, or else you wouldn't of kept me around. So whatever it is you're right. I'm your hostage and I should act like it. So I'm being quiet." He said seriously.

Hiead stared at him for a few moments before bringing his fist back and hitting Zero in the head again.

Zero flew foreword slamming onto the ground on his knees.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" Zero demanded growling.

"Just getting you to talk." Hiead said shrugging and walked pass the brunette.

Zero growled more holding his head and got to his feet. What the heck was up with this guy! First he was complaining because he wouldn't shut up, now he was complaining, because he wasn't talking.

"FUCK YOU!"

Hiead smirked and kept walking.

(X)

Yu located Rioroute a bit away from the hotel. He was sitting by one of the fountains in the town next to Kira, which caused Yu's inner voice to just scream attack.

"Rio-"

"YU HEY!" He said happily jumping to his feet grinning. "I was talking to Kira, we've been looking for you and Ernest for hours!"

Yu nodded walking over to them silently.

"So, you want to see the prince?"

"The what?" Rio asked blinking. Kira knew what he was talking about though and nodded.

"Yes. I'd quite enjoy seeing him…to make sure he's alright."

Yu nodded again. Perhaps he could get Ernest and Kira to date instead, that way Gareas would be pushed out of the picture, permanently.

"Alright. Follow me." Kira and Rio nodded standing up and together all three of them made their way back to the hotel Ernest was at. He led them upstairs, knocking on Ernest's door.

Getting no answer at all he figured Ernest must be asleep and shook his head. They made their ways down the hall and into Yu's room.

"I guess he's sleeping."

"Understandable. He did seem to have been going through a lot." Kira said a small smile on his face. "I can talk to him tomorrow."

Yu nodded at this turning to Rioroute.

"So…"

Kira snickered bowing a bit and left the room to go to his own quarters leaving Rio and Yu alone.

"I eh…well. We didn't get to talk to much this afternoon…" Rio said moving to one of the chairs in Yu's room.

Yu nodded.

"Yes you were to busy crying about your lizard."

Rioroute held back a sob and nodded.

"Yeah…poor rocky…"

"Don't start that up. I said I was sorry." Yu said a bit threateningly, but you could tell by his eyes that he really was sorry. He didn't want to talk about it, because he was mad at himself for killing the boy's pet in the first place. "So…what kind of work do you do?"

"I usually just deliver things for people, but my real job is a florist." He said looking up at Yu.

"Ah…well that would be why you're here." The knight moved to the table and took a seat across from Rio. They said nothing for a few moments not really sure as where to go from there. They sat in silence until finally, there was a knock on the door.

"Hey Yu…?"

Yu blinked a bit and got to his feet answering the door.

"What's wrong prince Erts?"

Erts frowned a bit.

"Sorry to interrupt…but have you seen my brother?"

"He's in his room asleep…"

"No he's not."

Yu's eyes widened at this and he ran out of his room at top speed into Ernest's room. Sure enough, Ernest was no where to be seen. There didn't seemed to have been any sign of a struggle, but Ernest was missing. The only thing left in the room was a book laying on the bed, a piece of paper being used as a book mark.

Yu walked over to the bed opening the book and reading the page. When Ernest was younger, if he had left he would always leave a note for Yu to read in the current book he was reading. On the book mark read.

"Gone for a bit, will return soon, please don't worry." And than Ernest's signature.

Yu let out a sigh of relief. At least Ernest hadn't been kidnapped or anything like that. Where had he gone though?

'He should of told me where he was going…at the least.' Yu thought to himself closing his eyes and setting the book and note back down.

"Yu are you okay…?" Erts asked.

"Yes…your brother will be fine…let's go."

Erts nodded slowly not quite sure why Yu had suddenly calmed down. Outside the window though walking past the hotel was Kira and Ernest, talking heading towards one of the many gardens. Seeing them together put Yu's mind at ease. At least Kira would be suitable for Ernest, not like that fool Gareas who needed to be murdered.

(X)

"I'm sorry I worried you." Ernest said quietly as Kira and him made their way through the city.

Kira just smiled at him.

"Well I'm not one to talk really. I did wake you up."

Ernest snickered nodding, but said nothing. He was really quite enjoying his time with Kira. It wasn't like being with Gareas though he reminded himself. When he was with Gareas, everything just seemed right, with Kira…things just seemed a bit relaxing.

"Well it was worth being woke up for. I enjoy walks, especially through this city and Fletz. Both are always so beautiful…" The blonde smiled brightly looking from the flowers to the stars. Could he really ask for a more romantic scene?

'If Gareas was here it would be…' He thought to himself a smile crossing his face. 'But I screwed that up already…' He looked to Kira who had said something.

"I'm sorry…could you repeat that?" Ernest asked a bit embarrassed. Kira didn't seem angry though and smiled to him nodding.

"Of course. I said you should come with me to Deningrad. I'm sure Queen Teela would love to meet you. And it would no doubt be a great experience."

Ernest smiled a bit thinking it over.

"Yes…I'm sure it would be, but I'm afraid one of the people I was with is currently missing…"

"Missing?"

"Yes…a boy named Zero. He was kidnapped by a Winglie…"

Kira froze staring at Ernest wide eyed.

"Did you say a Winglie? Are you sure…Winglies have said to have died long ago in the dragon campaign."

"Yes well…some things aren't as all the legends say." Ernest replied trying to keep a smile on his face. "It won't do to fight about the subject though, if you are around when we run into the boy, I'll be sure to let you know who and what he is."

Kira nodded slowly deciding if he was allowed, he would stick with these people for awhile.

(X)

_Master are you sure this is the dragon you wanted? _Yoarashi said through mental speech to his master. He sent an image of the sleeping dragon.

_Yes my child, that's the one._

_Yes master. _Yoarashi closed his eyes walking towards the dragon and put his hand into it's chest. Slowly he pulled it out taking the dragoon spirit with it. The sphere glowed as it was being removed, but after that stopped completely. The dragon did nothing, it having chosen to comply.

_I have the dragoon spirit._ He told his master jumping off a few rocks and walking back towards the portal.

_Good. Bring it here and we will send it to Rai as soon as possible._

_Yes my lord._

**TBC**

Well that chapter was a bit shorter than the last one I think…


	12. The spell

Been awhile yes it has….

This story will be a Yaoi. It will be Hiead and Zero, Gareas and Ernest, and the couple's

People are going to attack me for! Erts and Clay, and then finally Rioroute and Yu

Hikura. (Yes very... strange...but I'm a very weird kid.) If you're that dense,

**Yaoi means GUY with GUY!**

**Yuri means GIRL with GIRL!**

And

**Straight means GUY with GIRL! Or GIRL with GUY!**

1) ' insert thoughts'

mind speech is italics

(X) is pov change and or time jump

Disclaimer: Okay! I OWN NOTHING!

Chapter, 12: The spell

"Zero, come on, you have to be able to defend yourself one day when I'm not around," Dart yelled to his son a playful smirk on his face. This was one of the few times that Zero had actually seen his father truly smile. Again and again he'd seen the other smiles, if you could call them that, be forced on his face in order to hide how miserable he was or just something on his face so others wouldn't ask questions. Zero however could tell. He knew for some reason his father was not happy.

"You like fighting way too much dad," Zero joked and spun his sword in his hand. "Okay fine, here I come," he screamed running full force at his dad.

"HOSTAGE!"

Zero nearly fell over clutching his heart his breathing coming out in hard gasps. He looked around noticing they had actually stopped and then let his gaze fall upon Hiead. Hiead scowled hitting Zero aside the head his eyes narrowed.

"Pay attention," he warned. "We're entering not only enemy territory, but also where the divine dragon's young is," he said in all seriousness. "Stay on guard."

"What are we doing here anyway," Zero asked curiously as they walked on the trail going around the mountain.

"I thought I told you to shut up."

"And you hit me for being quite," Zero growled his head still a bit sore from the attack.

"Oh yeah," the Winglie mused. Still growling Zero glared at his captor. He was really getting sick of all of this. One minute he was supposed to talk, the next he wasn't. He was hit for either and the guys' constant attitude change was actually making him miss Gareas again.

Not being able to take much more of it though, he stopped, waited for Hiead to get a certain amount of feet away from him, and took off at a dead run jumping Hiead and tackling him onto the ground.

Hiead let out a surprised scream as his body collided with the ground, Zero on top of him.

"Take that," Zero said triumphantly a huge grin on his face. The Winglie lied there a few seconds, Zero making no moves to get up any time soon. In fact, instead of trying to get up, he lied down all the way wrapping his arms around Hiead's neck. "So what are you going to do now," Zero asked half jokingly. He actually felt more like he wanted to go to sleep again than again.

While Zero began drifting off slightly though, Hiead took advantage of this time to flip Zero over and pin him to the ground holding the boys shoulders down while he straddled his waist with his legs.

Zero instantly started blushing, though he wasn't completely sure why. He decided it was due to the face that Hiead had gotten the upper hand in all of this which was in turn making him feel very ashamed. He quickly began trying to push Hiead off of him.

"Oh, now you want to get away from me," Hiead mused as he brought his face inches from Zero's own. Zero's blushed deepened and he tried harder to pull away.

"Hi, Hiead stop…this isn't right get off…"

"But tackling me from behind and using me as a bed roll is," Hiead asked raising an eyebrow.

"We, well no," the brunette stuttered. He knew darn well that wasn't right.

"Well, if you wrong me, then I guess I get to wrong you."

Before Zero could react in any way Hiead closed what small distance that was between them and kissed Zero fully on the lips. Zero instantly had an energy surge and tried to use this to push the Winglie off and run, but Hiead was too strong for him. Eventually his body began to give way as his lungs started burning for air instead.

Hiead finally decided that he'd kissed Zero long enough and pulled away breathing hard. They locke gazes as they tried to catch their breaths. Zero tried to get out from under him again at this point, but gave up quickly not having the energy to go on. He figured to if he hadn't moved him by now, he wasn't going to ever.

"Why did you…" Zero's voice trailed off as he lost his breath again and decided to give up all together. It was just too weird for him to understand anymore. He closed his eyes and just lied there waiting to die from lack of air.

While waiting Zero felt Hiead's lip touch his again, but it didn't last as long as the first one had. Instead, nearly a second into the kiss, Hiead pulled away getting off as Zero as quickly as he could and to his feet moving away from the Dragoon.

"Hi-"

"Get up," Hiead ordered coldly and Zero found himself on his feet before he could even comprehend what was going on. "Can't believe I let myself get so carried away. This is all your fault," He hissed turning his eyes on Zero. He froze though seeing a much shaken Zero standing behind him. His eyes were open and he was shaking horribly looking worse than a scared rabbit.

"Eh…" Hiead wasn't too sure what to say. He knew the spell was what was affecting him, he hadn't been able to resist it so close to the Dragoon warrior. "Listen," he growled trying to shake off the effects of the spell. "What just happened wasn't supposed to," he went on doing his best to keep his voice under control. "I…there was nothing it-"

"I want you to kiss me again."

"What do you mean kiss you again," Hiead screamed coming close to just choking the boy to death.

"But…I want you to prove you didn't mean it…"

Zero wasn't completely sure of what was coming over him. The thoughts of what Fester had told him. Those times seemed so long ago to him as if almost in a different life. He remembered just starting this journey with Gareas just so he could stalk the prince and all the other crazy things happening. A weird knot started forming in his stomach then as he realized just how much he missed them all.

"I can't…"

Zero's attention was jerked back into reality and he looked up staring at the Winglie in front of him somewhat happy. If the boy couldn't prove he didn't like Zero that meant finally someone truly cared for him.

"And why can't you," he asked a grin starting to cross his features.

"…because the spell won't allow it….I'll be completely-" Hiead cut himself off growling again and started stomping foreword. "It's none of your business, come on human," he said finally completely emotionless again for the time being.

Zero followed silently behind wondering what this spell was or if the Winglie was just denial.

**(X)**

The first thing Rai noticed when he walked into his master's private meeting hall was Yoarashi was not latched onto him as he usually was.

'That must mean the plan is going along quite well,' Rai thought to himself as he stopped Gareas a few feet from his master so he'd remain the shadows.

"This is the boy you wanted," Rai said emotionlessly.

Gareas was tempted to kick the kid in front of him where he stood, but figured he could do it later. He wanted to see what this guy really had to offer anyway.

"Okay, I'm here. What do you want me of," he asked suspiciously.

The man in the shadows chuckled slightly and stood up walking out from them. He wasn't too old, about the same age as King Albert had been before he'd died, with short blonde hair and green eyes.

"Now now, don't sound so accusing," the man said jokingly a grin on his face. "I came to ask a favor of you and in return I will give you anything you want."

Gareas didn't have to look around to know that this man was some type of high ranking official with lots of money and power. The huge mansion he lived in clearly stated that, but what he wanted couldn't be bought with money, or at least not that he knew of.

"What do you want?"

The man smiled at him still laughing a bit seeming to be highly amused by Gareas' suspicions.

"Alright, alright. I'll get to the point so you don't go off on me for taking so long. Kids these days. You're traveling with Prince Ernest am I right? He did escape the fire…" The mans voice trailed off as Gareas had taken a step back at the turn of the conversation. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No one has known yet that Ernest is still alive. Who are you?"

"Prince Ernest," the man scowled as he pulled out a small box wrapped in thin gold paper. "Do you know what this is? It's a box, yes, but see this paper? It's actually made of real gold," the man said happily as he looked over it again as he had so many times before. "Yes…this belonged to Prince Ernest's father…which upon the time of his death I was to send this to the prince…however with all the commotion you can see the problems it lead to," the man said smiling.

Gareas wasn't sure if he trusted the man or not, it seemed innocent enough, but why hadn't he just had the kid give Ernest the thing instead or give it to him himself? Why was he here instead of Ernest?

"I wanted to give this to the prince himself…see him again, it's been ages since I've seen him," the man went on softly. "However…my health is not as good as it has been in the past and I'm afraid my time is running out. I would rather enjoy the rest of my time on this planet with my child than playing as a delivery boy," he went on as though reading all of Gareas' thoughts. "I would like you to give this to Prince Ernest. I'll happily give you whatever you wish in return for it, but you must promise me that you will give it to him and actually do so…I would not like to see his father's wishes go unanswered…"

"Get your son to do it," Gareas said growling. "What I want can't be bought."

He started to turn and walk away, but the man started talking again getting his attention very quickly.

"Bringing someone back from the dead is not as hard as you'd think."

Gareas stopped dead in his tracks going pale. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to know how the man had known what he wanted so badly. He slowly turned around his gaze going over the man; a sly smile was on the man's face.

"Do you really think I believe that," he asked threateningly. He had been joked with many of times and wanted no more of them ever again.

"Do not get me wrong," the man said his face suddenly turning serious. "It is not easy to bring one back to life, nor is it cheap, however…I am willing to do this if you will give Prince Ernest this keepsake."

"…You'll bring back Leena," Gareas asked cautiously to make sure this is indeed what they were talking about.

"Of course."

"Why haven't you resurrected King Albert than if you can bring people back," Gareas dared to ask.

"Because the King and I used to be good friends," the man replied a small smile crossing his face. "And we agreed if one of us should die, regardless of the circumstances, that, that would be that. We would not bring the other back."

"And yet you're willing to bring Leena back for me."

"Are you going to give the prince this item or not," the man asked his eyes slightly narrowed. Gareas could tell he was getting sick of being third degreed every few seconds.

"If you promise me without a doubt that you will bring Leena back…I swear I will give Ernest the keepsake."

The smile found its' way across the mans lips again and he nodded happily handing Gareas the box.

"Take good care of it," he warned winking at him. "If it breaks, I'll have your hide and you'll never see Leena again."

Gareas nodded taking the box and holding it gently walked out. He figured he'd be able to make it to Ernest within a few minutes, find him, give him the stupid thing and come back to get his lover. Then things would be as they were supposed to once again.

**(X)**

_Was there a reason…you gave up hope… _The voice appeared in Ernest's mind so suddenly he was a bit shocked to hear it. He'd gone straight from outside back to his room after walking around a bit. Yu had scolded him for leaving so he decided he'd stay in his room until they left in the morning. He knew he was alone though in this room and so hearing the voice kind of freaked him out at first.

_Are you…the-_

_I am the one who wants to be found _the voice said cutting Ernest's reply off._ I want to be found…I want to find you as well…please don't abandon me…I need you…just wait I promise I can keep you safe_ it whispered to him in an almost begging like tone.

Ernest nodded despite the fact he knew that whatever it was could not see him do it.

_Of course I can wait….I'll always wait…I just thought you and Gareas…were one and the same…_

The voice didn't reply this time though instead leaving Ernest to his own thoughts. He looked down at the book he'd been reading before the spirit or whatever it was had contacted him and then set it down on the near by table. He wasn't going to be able to concentrate on it any time soon.

"Well I suppose the first thing we should do is try to find Zero," Ernest said out loud trying to stay calm as he went over the past few events. He hadn't really had much time alone to think about the other things that had happened. His father was dead, Gareas had once again left him, Zero had been kidnapped, he'd found his younger brother…what of his mother and little sister though? Had they been okay? What about his grandfather and aunt, they'd been there too.

For the first time since they'd run all of these things came rushing at him at once and he felt almost like he was going to be sick.

"Why did you leave," Ernest whispered as his eyes darted from the lamp to the door of his room most of his thoughts jumping from one thing to Gareas and then back to another. When Gareas had been around, none of these thoughts could get to him. Gareas had always been fighting with Zero or joking around with someone or just plain comforting Ernest. He was gone now though, because of Ernest's stupidity.

The prince staggered off the bed to his feet and over to the door. He opened the door ready to run, but stopped seeing a very nervous looking Yu standing there.

"My lord…"

Ernest ignored every rule him and Yu had seemed to have thrown up since the time they'd turned fourteen and threw his arms around the knight. Yu stood there in shock as Ernest broke down in sobs shaking horribly as though he just now realized his entire world had been shattered.

Yu gently ushered the prince back into the room shutting the door behind them with his foot. He help him over to his bed blowing the candle out on the nightstand and pulled Ernest back down on the bed stroking his hair gently.

It had been years since Ernest had broken down like this and Yu had been forced to do this kind of thing. Of course, he didn't really need to be forced though; he enjoyed doing things like this. He had actually missed being able to comfort Ernest after they were of age as selfish as that might seem.

"It's alright…We'll find Gareas and have him hanged in front of the whole city," Yu said soothingly.

"No…I don't care about that…my family," Ernest sobbed and began crying harder.

Yu wasn't really sure what he could say about that. He had no idea if Kizna and Queen Emille had survived or not. With that in mind he wasn't even sure if his own sister was still alive.

"Even if they didn't make it…you still have Erts…"

"I know…"

Yu cursed himself for not being able to help with this situation, but as he thought about it. He wondered if anyone could actually properly deal with it.

**(X)**

"Please get rid of that look…it's horrible…" Yoarashi said frowning as he stared at his master's face. His master snickered and in the blink of an eye transformed from a common looking older man to a young handsome one with red eyes and black hair.

"Thank you…"

"But of course Yoarashi," the master mused walking over to the boy and nuzzling him gently. "You know I'd do anything for you…"

"M, master…"

Yoarashi's master snickered and he wrapped his arms around the boy's waist.

"It will only be a matter of time and Gareas will belong to us," he whispered into the boy's ear.

Yoarashi shivered slightly from the action, but never the less remained in his master's embrace.

**(X)**

Hiead stopped in front of a path way that looked like it'd been cut out of some trees. Zero looked at it curiously and back to Hiead.

"What's this?"

Hiead ignored him walking down the path into the forest. Glaring, Zero followed him. As they walked farther in the forest started giving away to a cleared out area of ruined buildings and the such. It was the first time that Zero noticed too that there was snow on the ground.

"Hi, Hiead…" Zero's head was beginning to feel light headed and he nearly stumbled foreword into the snow. The Winglie seemed to have completely channeled Zero out though and still paid no attention to him.

Zero staggered foreword a bit his eyes going out of focus and he almost fell to his knees and screamed seeing a woman with long black hair, red lips and enchanting brown eyes standing in front of him. She was wearing a blue and yellow outfit. The outfit itself was like a long shirt with shorts that almost looked like a very small dress, one boot that stopped at her ankle the other on her upper thigh. Standing next to her knelt down in the snow by a flat stone was his father.

"War is not in human nature. Humans fight by making themselves enter insanity. It is the same for revenge. This is a tool to amplify the insanity. And this insanity is the source of power for the Dragoons, the Dragon Knight. Someday, something will happen, and if you cannot chasten your insanity, I wonder if you will be able to endure it, given the meagerness of your spirit?"

The words echoed loudly through Zero's head as if the woman was standing right in front of him and talking. His fathered had looked up frowning at the woman and then they were gone. It was as if nothing had happened and no one was there.

"What…what was-?"

Flashes of an unseen face went through his mind as the village itself was re-burning around Zero. People were screaming and trying to run as this monster came out of no where burning them to cinders as it went.

Zero screamed falling to his knees and holding his head as the onslaught of these images came again and again at him.

"I…I can't see. Mom, I'm scared."

"Where is Princess Louvia? Where did you hide the moon child!"

"Mom! Dad!"

"Do you want to die with your daughter?"

All the images flashed before him, their voices echoing through his mind as he knelt there helplessly in the snow. Pictures of his father at a younger age, his father's parents, this black monster and some woman he'd never seen before. They were all too much for the poor boy and he ended up curling up in a ball on the ground crying.

"Well I guess there's no doubt about it now," Hiead said with a smirk as he watched Zero huddled up on the ground crying out for the images to stop. "You are indeed the one I've been looking for. Do the images hurt Zero," he asked smugly as he knelt down besides the boy. "Do you want them to end?"

Zero did and said nothing, but what he'd been doing in the first place. He felt completely helpless and as if he was going to die. The smoke coming up everywhere and the buildings crashing down around him made him want to run as quickly as he could. He couldn't move though, his body was stuck in one place for some unknown reason.

The entire thing kept reminding Zero of Lohan and how Dabus had ended up giving up his life just because Hiead had wanted something. Yes Hiead that damned Winglie that he was with.

Zero's head jerked up his eyes glowing slightly as he started growling at the Winglie beside him. Hiead smirked more at this and shoved Zero onto his back in the snow.

"I'm so glad you're finally realizing the truth," he said a hint of happiness crawling into his voice. It wasn't a normal happiness though, it was more of like one of smugness, and something had happened that Hiead had wanted to.

"S, stop it," Zero managed to get out between his wanting to scream and his hard breathing. The images reflashed in front of his eyes and he began to wonder which reality was his own. Was Hiead even next to him or was it part of the images? He was a Winglie after all and that meant he could still easily be alive even if he had been at Neet during its destruction.

"Hiead," Zero choked out trying to get past the anger and every other emotion trying to come out a once. "It hurts…It hurts so badly….Gareas….stop the pain…." Zero closed his eyes knowing the images wouldn't stop, but he wanted it to end. He needed someone, anyone who could put a stop to this insanity before it got worse. "Please…Gareas don't make me…..dad…."

Hiead watched in complete satisfaction as the boy let out a loud sob and then fell into darkness. This was without a doubt the boy he'd been looking for.

"Perfect."

**TBC**


End file.
